Sms Konig: Cava Sound, Scapa Flow, Orkney

HY30SW 8004 3361 0048

N58 53.2167 W3 9.1167

NLO: Holm of Houton [name: HY 315 029]

Calf of Cava [name: HY 322 006]

Cava [name: ND 327 995]

Barrel of Butter [name: HY 352 009]

Point of Tuberry (Cava) [name: HY 334 993]

Stromness [name: HY 253 090]

Scapa Flow [name centred HY 36 00].

For other ships within this group, see:

HY30SW 8002 Dresden (cruiser)

HY30SW 8007 Markgraf (battleship)

HY30SW 8008 Kronprinz Wilhelm (battleship)

HY30SW 8009 Brummer (cruiser)

HY30SW 8010 Koln (cruiser)

HY30SW 8011 Grosser Kurfurst (battleship)

HY30SW 8012 Friedrich der Grosse (battleship)

HY30SW 8014 Bayern (battleship)

HY30SE 8003 Frankfurt (cruiser: secondary location)

HY30SE 8004 Emden (cruiser: secondary location)

HY30SE 8005 Bremse (cruiser: secondary location)

Formerly entered as Site no. 8846.

For general plans of High Seas Fleet (Internment Formation) wrecks in Scapa Flow, see Van der Vat 1986 (endpapers), Smith 1989, 4, Macdonald 1998, 19 and George 1999, 35.

KONIG: is upside down and largely blown apart.

[Transists for locating her are included in the source].

Source: Butland & Siedecki, BSAC Wreck Register, Scotland 1 1987.

Remains at Scapa Flow.

P L Smith 1989.

[Transits illustrated].

G Ridley 1992.

Horizontal Datum = OGB

General water depth = 30

Orientation of keel/wreck = ESE/WNW

Circumstances of Loss Details

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The German battleship KONIG was scuttled.

Surveying Details

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1919. A dangerous wreck is reported, with the least depth of 12.8 metres, is reported at 58 53 13N, 003 09 07W.

8 April 1936. The wreck was sold to Metal Industries Ltd. Messrs Nundy (Marine Metals) Ltd state that wreck 0.5 miles to the SE is the KONIG (58 52 58N, 003 08 23W). This wreck is given as the DRESDEN by Hydrographic Office records.

8 December 1977. The wreck is now charted as a damgerous wreck, lying with its keel on an orientation of 113/292 degrees and with the least depth of 12.5 metres.

20 August 1979. The wreck is to be salvaged by Undersea Associates Ltd.

Source: Lloyd's List, 15 August 1979.

5 April 1982. The site no longer resembles a ship, but twisted heap of steel plate.

Report by A Reece, letter dated 30 March 1982.

Hydrographic Office, 1995.

(Classified as battleship: date of loss cited as 21 June 1919). Konig: this vessel was scuttled 0.25 miles E of Cava.

Registration: german. 25388 tons displacement. Length: 175m. Beam: 29m.

(Location of loss cited as N58 53.23 W3 9.12).

I G Whittaker 1998.

In July 2000 a side scan sonar survey of the area of Scapa Flow in which the seven wrecks are situated was carried out in conjunction with a bathymetric and seabed classification survey using Echoplous equipment. In addition, detailed sonar images were obtained and geo-referenced so that exact co-ordinates of the extreme ends of each wreck structure could be obtained.

ADU, MS/5450.

Scheduled with SMS Markgraf (HY30SW 8007) and SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm (HY30SW 8008).

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 23 March 2001.

Material reported under RoW amnesty (2001):

A2100 deck bolt

A3784 1 communications earpiece: from seabed

A4364 2 turbine blades: from seabed.

NMRS, MS/829/35.

Material reported under RoW amnesty (2001):

A4514 Brass plaques marked 'Aus.. Langsam..', '61-Autzug' and 'Linke Seite'; one showing the shape of a shell case.

NMRS, MS/829/77.

Length over all: 583ft (177.7m)

Length waterline: 576ft (175.7m)

Beam (extreme): 100ft (30.5m)

Beam (waterline): 97ft (29.5m)

Draught (normal condition): 27ft (8.3m)

Draught (deep load): 30ft (9.3m)

Displacement (standard): 25,797 t

Displacement (full load): 29,669 t

Propulsion: 15 x Schultz-Thorneycroft 3-drum superheated boilers (12 coal, 3 oil: 235 psi wp); 3 x triple-stage Parsons turbines (built by Brown Boveri); direct drive to three shafts; 31,000/35,000 shp nominal; 21/23 kts maximum. (A proposal to fit a diesel engine to the centre shaft was apparently made but abandoned)

Fuel: 3597t coal; 700t oil

Range: 4600nm (8500km) at 19 kts

Armament: 10 x 30.5cm (12ins: 50 cal: twin turrets); 14 x 15cm (5.9ins: 45 cal: single mountings); 6 x 8.8cm (3.5ins: 45 cal: single mountings); 2 x 8.8cm AA (3.5ins: 45 cal: single mountings); 5 x 50cm (19.7ins) torpedo tubes

Armour: Krupp cemented nickel alloy steel (of low carbon, but surface heat treated); lower belt 350mm max; deck 120mm max; turrets 300mm max; conning tower 350mm max

Peacetime complement: 1096 (further augmented in war to 1129, including flag staff of 15).

SMS Konig was the name-ship of the four-strong Konig or Koenig class, the fourth class of German Dreadnought battleship. Konig was included in the 1911 Naval Estimates of the Reichstag, built at the Imperial Dockyard, Wilhelmshaven, and launched on 1 March 1913. She joined the High Seas Fleet on 10 August 1914, six days after the outbreak of war.

The Konig class were built as a counter to the first of the British super-dreadnoughts and were, similarly, designed so as to place all their main armament on the centreline. Nine boiler-rooms were provided (as against six in the corresponding British Orion class) and the belt armour on the Konigs was 13.75ins thick as against 12ins on the Orions; the German ships also had an additional torpedo bulkhead within the hull while 16 watertight bulkheads defined 17 compartments. By contrast, however, the German ships were lighter-gunned, having a main armament of ten 12-inch guns with a range of 20,500 yds (18,750m) as against the Orions' ten 13.5-inch, which had a range of 23,100 yds (21,100m). In accordance with German practice, the Konigs were fuelled by both coal and oil, the former being predominant. Their cost of about 43 million Marks (equivalent to #2.5M at 1914 prices) was considerably more than the British equivalent (c. #1.8M) reflecting the cost of increased armour plate and further subdivision. Such costs were a financial embarrassment to Germany. The Konigs were the first German capital ships to have Parsons turbines built by Brown Boveri, and were known as good seakeeping vessels, with a slow but gentle heel, even under rudder.

After a prolonged period of inactivity in 1915 and early 1916, Konig and other ships of the Third Battle Squadron supported the battlecruisers at the bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft (25 April 1916). The ship also fought at the Battle of Jutland (May 1916), where she suffered significant damage and flooding which took two months to repair, took part in the abortive raid on Sunderland (August 1916), and provided naval gunfire support in the Baltic in October 1917, fatally crippling the Russian battleship Slava. After the Armistice, leaking condenser tubes prevented this ship from being interned in the Scapa with the main body of the High Seas Fleet, and she did not reach the anchorage until 6 December 1918.

This ship is now the most heavily damaged in the Flow. She capsized to port on sinking, and now lies almost upside down in between 34 and 37m depth of water so that the massive weight of the hull is forcing the superstructure into the thick clay that lies below the surface silt. No salvage was attempted by Cox and Danks or by Metal Industries, but in the 1960's and 1970's Nundy Metals used scuba divers to place charges on her hull plates. Her hull plating and armour plate have been extensively removed and her bow frames have collapsed into the debris field. This opening up of the ship along her length has exposed much of her internal equipment. The stern and starboard rudder remain intact. The remains of this wreck are regularly visited by recreational divers, and are fully described in various diving guides.

The wreck lies 0.75nm E of Calf of Cava light and 0.85nm WSW of the Barrel of Butter [name: HY 352 009]. It is charted (Wk) and has a clearance of 12.5m above a seabed at a depth of about 35m (shelving to the W). The nature of the seabed is not indicated locally but is evidently of varied composition.

This ship may be considered as falling within the Cava Sound group of heavy ships and cruisers, which were scuttled within the area defined by Holm of Houton [name: HY 315 029], Calf of Cava [name: HY 322 006], Barrel of Butter [name: HY 352 009] and Point of Tuberry (Cava) [name: HY 334 993]. Cava Sound (which is not noted as such on the chart) may be understood as a relatively deep eastwards extension of Hoy Sound, leading into the broad expanse of Scapa Flow. It has a generally flat bottom at a charted depth of between 30 and 45m; the seabed type is defined sparingly but is apparently of sand and stones.

Apart from the specifically-indicated wrecks, an extensive area of foul ground and numerous obstructions and wrecks attest to the former presence of the High Seas Fleet. The former is situated around N58 53.85 W3 11 [HY 31 01], while the latter form a broad band extending from E to W between about N58 53.8 W3 8.4 [HY 34 01] and N58 53.9 W3 10.8 [HY 32 01].

(For sectional arrangement of Konig class ships (SMS Konig, SMS Markgraf and SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm), see Smith 1989, 22. For block section and underwater artist's impression (with SMS Markgraf and SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm), see Macdonald 1998, 70 and 74 respectively).

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 8 January 2003.

H M Le Fleming 1961; G Bennett 1983; D M Ferguson 1985; D Van der Vat 1986; P L Smith 1989; R Macdonald 1998; [Jane] 2001.

HO Chart 35 (1980, revised 1991).

(unpaginated annexe) information from Dolphin Scuba Service

NMRS, MS/829/63

Plans and drawings of this vessel are held in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

NMRS, MS/1614.

(Discussed in connection with Scheduling of wrecks in Scapa Flow).

Source: 'Wrecks, divers and scheduling: the case of Scapa Flow, Orkney', article by O Owen in Nautical Archaeology, 2002.3.

MS/2745.