Big artefacts go under cover at Scapa Flow Museum

Sharp-eyed folk passing the Scapa Flow Visitor Centre and Museum at Lyness next week may see the unusual sight of big guns flying through the air.

The two historic weapons, formerly attached to SMS Bremse and SMS Karlsruhe as part of the German High Seas Fleet, are being partially dismantled and lifted from their outdoor plinths and brought under cover to await professional conservation.

Nick Hewitt, Team Leader (Culture) for Orkney Islands Council will be there to keep a watchful eye and explains: “While we all love to see large objects outdoors, decades in a harsh marine environment have not been kind to these very important artefacts, which are two of only five First World War German naval guns surviving in the UK.

“Both are now showing signs of the exposure, so it’s definitely time for them to come indoors if we want them to survive for another hundred years.

“At the same time, we are also relocating the propeller from HMS Hampshire, which has since 1988 been an imposing and much loved feature in the forecourt, to a more prominent position closer to the main vehicle entrance to the Museum - as well as the fuel filter equipment and the High Seas Fleet anchor.”

Visitor Services Officer for the Museum, Jude Callister, said: “We will miss the presence of these big guns immensely but we are determined to secure dedicated funding for their repair and conservation and get them back on display as quickly as we can.

“We’re confident as a team that the huge investment in the current Museum refurbishment and extension, which is now really taking shape, will help us leverage funding to get these extraordinary artefacts the care and expert work they need to protect and restore them.”

The works, which are highly weather dependent, are planned for next week.

Also being lifted is a Hotchkiss gun from the deck of HMS Hampshire - one of 18 quick-firing (QF) 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns carried by the vessel. This gun will be taken out of storage where it has been for some time and carried to Kirkwall for an onward journey for conservation work by JPS Restoration, specialist large industrial conservators based in Alloa. The gun will return to the county in the run up to Christmas to take up position inside the new Museum extension.

Correction to this article as originally published - the gun referred to above from the wreck of HMS Hampshire and transported for conservation is actually a Vickers 3 Pounder Mk II Quick-Firing deck gun. In 1905, when she entered service, the Hampshire was equipped with eighteen similar guns of an earlier design, ie Hotchkiss guns. These were later replaced by the Vickers guns. From 1916, the number was reduced to 14. These Quick-Firing guns were capable of firing 20 rounds per minute up to a range of 3.2 miles (5.2 km). They were mainly intended for use against attacking enemy torpedo boat destroyers. This was in addition to her main armament of four 7.5-inch guns and six 6-inch guns. Three Vickers guns were recovered from the wreck, all now in Orkney Islands Council's Museums' collection; the newly-restored gun mentioned in this article and which will be on display in Scapa Flow Museum, one in the reserve collection (in storage), and one on display at Marwick Head, at the start of the public path to Kitchener's Memorial.

The heavy lifting and relocation work is being carried out by local firms Orkney Builders Contractors Ltd and Heddle Construction Ltd, as part of the contract to refurbish the Museum’s Pumphouse and build the new extension.

The guns from SMS Bremse and SMS Karlsruhe are both 15cm SK L45 – both these vessels were interned with the rest of the High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow in 1918, and scuttled by their own crews on 21 June 1919. Bremse was salvaged by Ernest Cox ten years later, but Karlsruhe remains on the sea bed and is a popular site for recreational divers.

SMS Bremse was a minelaying light cruiser launched in 1916 in Stettin. She spent the war operating in the North Sea, taking part in a raid on British convoy to Norway in 1917 which resulted in the sinking of two Royal Navy destroyers and nine merchant ships.

SMS Karlsruhe was a light cruiser, launched in 1916 in Kiel and named after the Imperial German Navy’s famous raiding cruiser which was lost in the Caribbean at the start of the First World War. She saw service in the North Sea and the Baltic. The gun from this vessel in the Museum’s collection is missing its gun shield.

HMS Hampshire struck a German mine off Marwick Head in heavy weather on the evening of June 5, 1916, and sank within 15 minutes. All but 12 men of over 650 on board perished, including Lord Kitchener, who was travelling with a delegation to Russia. Together the shaft plus the manganese bronze propeller weigh around 25 tons. They were removed from the wreck site in 1985 by a German salvage ship. In 1988, the shaft and propellor were returned to Orkney for display at the Scapa Flow Museum, with assistance at the time from Occidental Petroleum Flotta.

The Scapa Flow Museum charts Orkney’s military involvement in the First and Second World Wars and provides a safe home for a major collection of wartime artefacts, many of national and international importance.

It is currently undergoing a refurbishment project valued at of £4.3 million, comprising an extension to the Museum and refurbishment of the historicpumphouse, supported by Orkney Islands Council, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic Environment Scotland, the Orkney LEADER 2014-2020 programme, Highlands and Islands Enterprise,  Museums Galleries Scotland and the Scottish Government’s European Regional Development Fund programme, managed by NatureScot through the Natural & Cultural Heritage Fund. (The Natural & Cultural Heritage Fund is part of the Scottish Government’s European Regional Development Fund programme, which finishes in 2023. NatureScot is also managing another element of the programme – the Green Infrastructure Fund. The Scottish Government is the Managing Authority for the European Regional Development Fund and the European Structural Funds 2014-20 Programme. For further information visit the Scottish Government website or follow @scotgovESIF.)

Before it’s closure for refurbishment, the Museum attracted 14,000 visitors each year. It’s anticipated visitor numbers will significantly increase as a result of the ambitious and extensive changes and upgrades.

When complete, the Museum will open all-year-round for the first time in many years, encouraging more people to visit Hoy and boosting tourism throughout the island.