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In 1982 a friend and I towed our Aberglen Gordon up to Orkney to dive the fabled wrecks of Scapa Flow for a week. These wrecks were in relatively deep water of up to 45 metres. The water was cold and dark, but the massive wrecks lying at the bottom of Scapa Flow were worth the effort. The lure of the German wrecks would bring me back to Scapa Flow each year for more than thirty years thereafter.

Scapa Flow is a dramatic and windswept expanse of water some 12 miles across, which is almost completely encircled by the islands of Orkney. To get there from mainland Scotland entailed a long drive up to the ferry port of Scrabster, near Thurso. This was followed by a 2 hour sea crossing on the P&O ferry St Ola, past the rugged sheer cliffs of the island of Hoy, home to the fabled Old Man of Hoy, a 200 metre high rock pinnacle.

On the land all around Orkney there are poignant reminders of its war-torn past. Long deserted military bases, barracks and gun emplacements bear silent witness to its military history. For centuries Scapa Flow has been a safe, sheltered and heavily defended anchorage for the Royal Navy. Great warships and dramatic deeds are an integral part of that past.