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The wreck of this famous battleship lies in 30–35 metres of water less than one mile north of the tanker pier at Flotta to the south – the Vanguard east cardinal marker buoy swings nearby to the east. Although licensed salvage work was carried out on the wreck in the 1950s and 1970s, no diving has been permitted since the 1980s by virtue of Orkney Harbour Bye Laws and latterly by the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. Now that I was part of a licensed survey team, after 35 years of diving in Scapa Flow but being unable to visit this wreck, I was now about to see this World War I dreadnought, hidden from sight for so long under the dark waters of Scapa Flow.

Preliminary sonar scans of the area revealed that the wreck lies with her bows to the north-east and her stern to the south-west. The two extreme sections of the wreck, the bow and stern, appeared to have survived largely intact. The fo’c’sle appeared to be sitting upright, detached from the rest of the wreck. The mid-section of the ship kept its ship shape on the sonar whilst the stern of the wreck appeared to be lying on its port side.