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60-416: The area comprises a fully exposed synclinorium which gave rise to dramatic upland areas ( Welsh : mynydd ) rising to 300–600 metres above sea level, and intersected by steep-sided valleys in which most of the area's deep mines were developed. The coal measures ( Upper Carboniferous /Pennsylvanian) are thick, workable seams in the lower parts and generally thinner and sparser seams in the upper parts, with

120-582: A 30-foot (9.1 m) hole in the Royal Oak , which flooded and quickly capsized. Of the 1,400-man crew, 833 were lost. The wreck is now a protected war grave . John Gunther in December 1939 called the attack "the single most extraordinary feat of the war so far". Three days after the submarine attack, four Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 bombers of Kampfgeschwader 1/30 led by group commander Hauptmann Fritz Doench raided Scapa Flow on 17 October in one of

180-589: A coal spoil tip collapsed onto them. On 15 September 2011, seven miners were working a narrow seam at the Gleision Colliery drift mine in the Tawe Valley , near Swansea , when a sudden ingress of water filled the passage in which they were working. Three miners were immediately able to escape to the surface. Despite extensive efforts to rescue the remaining miners, on 16 September South Wales Police confirmed that all four had died. Coal mining in

240-405: A decision on their future in the peace Treaty of Versailles . On 21 June 1919, after seven months of waiting, German Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter made the decision to scuttle the fleet because the negotiation period for the treaty had lapsed with no word of a settlement. He was not kept informed that there had been a last-minute extension to finalise the details. After waiting for the bulk of

300-403: A development of sandstones ( Pennant Sandstone ) much used in local construction, (including the characteristic terraced houses ). The coal generally increases in grade or "rank" from east to west, with bituminous coals in the east, and anthracite in the west, mostly to the north and west of Neath . The Rhondda Valley was particularly known for steam coals which fuelled steamships of

360-437: A new company, a division of Cox & Danks Ltd, for the venture, and so began what is often called the greatest maritime salvage operation of all time. During the next eight years, Cox and his workforce of divers, engineers, and labourers engaged in the complex task of raising the sunken fleet. First the relatively small destroyers were winched to the surface using pontoons and floating docks to be sold for scrap to help finance

420-580: A northern base was needed to control the entrances to the North Sea , as part of a revised policy of 'distant' rather than 'close' blockade. First Rosyth in Fife was considered, then Invergordon at Cromarty Firth . Delayed construction left these largely unfortified by the outbreak of the First World War. Scapa Flow had been used many times for British exercises in the years before the war and when

480-570: A successful penetration by enemy forces. On 14 October 1939, under the command of Günther Prien , U-47 penetrated Scapa Flow and sank the First World War-era battleship HMS  Royal Oak anchored in Scapa Bay. After firing its first torpedo salvo, the submarine turned to make its escape; but, upon realising that there was no immediate threat from surface vessels, it returned for another attack. The second torpedo salvo blew

540-416: A synformal syncline (i.e. a trough), but synclines that point upwards can be found when strata have been overturned and folded (an antiformal syncline). On a geologic map, synclines are recognized as a sequence of rock layers , with the youngest at the fold's center or hinge and with a reverse sequence of the same rock layers on the opposite side of the hinge. If the fold pattern is circular or elongate,

600-667: Is a body of water in the Orkney Islands , Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland , Graemsay , Burray , South Ronaldsay and Hoy . Its sheltered waters have played an important role in travel, trade and conflict throughout the centuries. Vikings anchored their longships in Scapa Flow more than a thousand years ago. It was the United Kingdom's chief naval base during the First and Second World wars, but

660-904: Is located on the shore. The wreckage of the remaining seven ships of the German fleet (and some other sites such as the blockships) has become increasingly popular as a venue for recreational scuba divers , and is regularly listed in dive magazines and internet forums among the top dive sites in the UK, Europe, and even the world. Although other locations, for example the Pacific regions, offer warmer water and better visibility, there are very few other sites which can offer such an abundance of large, historic wrecks lying in close proximity and shallow, relatively benign diving conditions. As of 2010, at least twelve "live aboard" boats—mostly converted trawlers with bunk rooms in their former holds—take recreational divers out to

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720-523: Is not sufficient to view all the length of most wrecks at once; however, current technology is now allowing 3D images of them to be seen. The important wrecks are: The three sister battleships of the König class : SMS  König , SMS  Kronprinz and SMS  Markgraf formed the main component of the 3rd Battleship Squadron which took part in fierce fighting at the Battle of Jutland far off

780-529: The Battle of Cocos on 9 November 1914 by the Australian light cruiser HMAS  Sydney . At least seven of the scuttled German ships and a number of sunken British ships can today be visited by divers. Although many of the larger ships turned turtle and came to rest upside down or on their sides in relatively deep water (25–45 m), some—including the battlecruiser Moltke —were left with parts of their superstructure or upturned bows still protruding from

840-587: The British Columbia and West Virginia coalfields), Energybuild plc, worked a drift mine near the old Tower Colliery, the Aberpergwm Colliery, until production was suspended in July 2015. The mine produced high quality anthracite , and was sold primarily to Aberthaw power station and Port Talbot Steelworks and into the wholesale and retail sized coal markets. Energybuild also operates

900-462: The General Strike of 1926 , the salvage operation was about to grind to a halt due to a lack of coal to feed the many boilers for the water pumps and generators. Cox ordered that the abundant fuel bunkers of the sunken (but only partly submerged) battlecruiser Seydlitz be broken into to extract the coal with mechanical grabs, allowing work to continue. Although he ultimately lost money on

960-822: The Herderinnan , in Scapa Flow, in preparation for his attempt to raise a rebellion in Scotland. The enterprise ended in failure and rout at the Battle of Carbisdale . Historically, the main British naval bases were near the English Channel to counter the continental naval powers: the Dutch Republic, France, and Spain. In 1904, in response to the build-up of the German Kaiserliche Marine ' s High Seas Fleet , Britain decided that

1020-639: The Nant y Mynydd opencast coal site nearby. As the mines and other industries rapidly expanded throughout the coalfield, nearby towns also expanded to meet the demand for labour. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the development of ironworks saw the population of Merthyr Tydfil , in the northern part of the coalfield, increase from 7,700 in 1801 to 49,794 in 1861, making it the largest town in Wales. As Cardiff and other ports in South Wales grew to meet

1080-699: The Revenge-class battleships were partly oil-fired: oil was used mainly for both quick-start steaming, and sprayed on burning coal to extend their range. A number of cruiser and destroyer classes produced since 1904 also used oil. However, by the time of the Battle of Jutland in May/June 1916 still only a sixth of the Grand Fleet was oil-fired. Further, that summer the British suffered a number of losses of oil tankers, and had to instruct oil-fired ships to restrict their fuel consumption and hence speed. When

1140-1033: The United States entered the war in April 1917, the British instructed the United States Navy to send only coal-fired ships to assist them. To assist the Royal Navy, from the outset of the war the Government and railway companies ran what were termed "Jellicoe Specials", high-speed coal carrying freight trains that ran from South Wales to north-east Scotland, and then by ship to Scapa Flow . Initially running to Dingwall , they then were also shipped to Scrabster through Thurso . However, inadequate capacity in port and rail facilities at these locations meant that from January 1915, all naval ordnance (other than ammunition) and medical supplies were sent by rail to Aberdeen , and from mid-1915 Grangemouth . By

1200-955: The " death pit ". The two biggest accidents at the Black Vein pit were in 1860, when 146 died, and in 1880 when 119 people died. The Prince of Wales colliery in Abercarn exploded in 1878 causing 268 deaths. The Llanerch Colliery in Abersychan exploded in 1890 causing 176 deaths. The Albion Colliery in Cilfynydd exploded in 1894 causing 276 deaths. In the 20th century there were numerous further fatal accidents. The Universal Colliery in Senghenydd had Britain's worst mining accident when it exploded in 1913 killing 431. In 1966, 116 children and 28 adults were killed in Aberfan when

1260-497: The 11th century Orkneyinga sagas and later texts such as the Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar . According to the latter, King Haakon IV of Norway anchored his fleet, including the flagship Kroussden that could carry nearly 300 men, on 5 August 1263 at St Margaret's Hope , where he saw an eclipse of the sun before he sailed south to the Battle of Largs . En route back to Norway Haakon anchored some of his fleet in Scapa Flow for

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1320-454: The 1980s, with factors such as exhaustion of reserves and geological complexity adding to their problems. The last deep mine, at Tower Colliery on the north crop, ceased mining in January 2008. However, a few small licensed mines continue to work seams, mostly from outcrop, on the hillsides. Although some areas of the coalfield are effectively worked out, considerable reserves remain. However,

1380-419: The 19th and early 20th centuries. Ways along the valley floors provided the main routes for exporting coal south to ports and docks such as Newport Docks , Cardiff Docks and Barry Docks . Early mining activity was mainly by levels or adits driven into coal seams from outcrops in the valley sides. Development of the coalfield proceeded very actively from about 1850, when deep mining became significant in

1440-475: The British fleet to leave on exercises, he gave the order to scuttle the ships to prevent their falling into British hands. The Royal Navy made desperate efforts to board the ships to prevent the sinkings, but the German crews had spent the idle months preparing for the order, welding bulkhead doors open, laying charges in vulnerable parts of the ships, and quietly dropping important keys and tools overboard so valves could not be shut. The Royal Navy managed to beach

1500-633: The German High Seas Fleet rarely ventured out of its bases at Wilhelmshaven and Kiel and in the last two years of the war the British fleet was considered to have such a commanding superiority of the seas that some components moved south to the first-class dockyard at Rosyth . Following the German defeat, 74 ships of the Imperial German Navy 's High Seas Fleet were interned in Gutter Sound at Scapa Flow pending

1560-578: The South Wales Coalfield was a dangerous occupation with lifelong health implications. Between 1849 and 1853, miners over the age of 25 in the Merthyr Tydfil district were found to have a life expectancy of around 20 years lower than in other mining areas of England and Wales. In the 1930s, mine owners became concerned about the adverse health effects of coal dust and the amount it was costing them to compensate miners working at

1620-539: The battleship Baden , the light cruisers Emden , Nürnberg , and Frankfurt and 18 destroyers whereas 53 ships, the vast bulk of the High Seas Fleet, were sunk. Nine German sailors died on some of these ships when British forces opened fire as they attempted to scuttle the ships, reputedly the last casualties of the war. SMS  Emden was amongst the ships the British managed to beach. This Emden should not be confused with her predecessor , destroyed in

1680-790: The battleships. Additional sites of interest include the destroyer SMS  V83 , which was raised and used by Cox as a working boat during his salvage operations, particularly on SMS  Hindenburg , then later abandoned; the Churchill blockships, such as the Tabarka , the Gobernador Bories , and the Doyle in Burra Sound; the U-boat SM ; UB-116 ; and the trawler James Barrie . Also, some large items from many of

1740-564: The coalface. Pneumoconiosis proved to be a particular problem for miners in South Wales, accounting for almost 90% of the total cases for the whole of the UK in both 1939 and 1945, and with more than 25% of the South Wales mining labour force affected between 1959 and 1963. Women in South Wales were often not economically active in the second half of the nineteenth century due to the Mines and Collieries Act 1842 which restricted women from underground working. It has been suggested that this explains

1800-436: The coast of Jutland, Denmark (31 May to 1 June 1916) and their upturned hulls are around 25 m deep. Never raised, they have been salvaged incrementally: armour plate blasted away and non-ferrous metals removed. Some of this material may have been obtained for specialized uses because it was not subject to the radiation put into the atmosphere by nuclear weapons , which were exploded in the open air from 1945 to 1963. Thus it

1860-487: The contract, Cox kept going, employing new technology and methods as conditions dictated. By 1939, Cox and Metal Industries Ltd. (the company that he had sold out to in 1932) had successfully raised 45 of the 52 scuttled ships. The last, the massive Derfflinger , was raised from a record depth of 45 metres just before work was suspended with the start of the Second World War, before being towed to Rosyth where it

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1920-546: The demands for exporting iron, steel and coal in the later part of the nineteenth century, valleys that had previously been sparsely inhabited suddenly increased in population. The Rhondda valley grew from less than a thousand people in 1851 to more than 150,000 in 1911. Between 1881 and 1911, Glamorgan became the most industrialised part of Wales and saw inward migration of more than 330,000 people from elsewhere in Wales, neighbouring parts of England and further afield. The coal mines were employing 250,000 men by 1921, but this

1980-513: The end of WWI, the Royal Navy had 33 dreadnoughts and 9 battle cruisers, with 10 and 2 respectively entirely oil fuelled. However, after WWI, the move to oil-firing was quickly extended to other areas, including the railways, which was a key strategic factor in the economic hardship which struck the coalfield after the war. Coal workings were over-expanded in the late nineteenth century, and the Welsh coal owners had failed to invest in mechanisation. By

2040-604: The facility was closed in 1956. Since the scuttling of the German fleet after World War I , its wrecks and their marine habitats form an internationally acclaimed diving location . Scapa Flow hosts an oil port, the Flotta oil terminal . In good weather, its roadstead (water of moderate conditions) allows ship-to-ship transfers of crude oil product. The world's first ship-to-ship transfer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) took place in Scapa Flow in 2007 transferring 132,000m³ of LNG. This occurred in 2007 by Excelerate Energy between

2100-490: The first bombing attacks on Britain during the war. The attack badly damaged an old base ship, the decommissioned battleship HMS  Iron Duke , which was then beached at Ore Bay by a tug. One man died and 25 were injured. One of the bombers was shot down by No 1 gun of 226 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery on Hoy. Three of the crew died, while the radio operator Fritz Ambrosius was badly burned but managed to parachute down. New blockships were sunk, booms and mines were placed over

2160-436: The geological difficulties, which resulted in the closure of (for instance) Nantgarw colliery, make the cost of significant further extraction high. The coalfield experienced a late-stage development when opencast mining was commenced on a large scale, mostly on the gently-dipping north crop. In addition, old tips were reclaimed for their small coal content, which could be burned in power stations such as nearby Aberthaw. Most of

2220-467: The inter-war period the South Wales Coalfield had the lowest productivity, highest costs and smallest profits in Britain. Hardship continued through the 1926 general strike , the great depression of the 1930s, World War II and thereafter. The 1937 novel The Citadel and the 1939 novel How Green Was My Valley (later filmed, with a wildly inaccurate "colliery village") describe such hardship, as do

2280-433: The lower marriage age and higher fertility of women in the coalfield. Synclinorium In structural geology , a syncline is a fold with younger layers closer to the center of the structure, whereas an anticline is the inverse of a syncline. A synclinorium (plural synclinoriums or synclinoria ) is a large syncline with superimposed smaller folds. Synclines are typically a downward fold ( synform ), termed

2340-619: The main entrances, coast defence and anti-aircraft batteries were installed at crucial points, and Winston Churchill ordered the construction of a series of causeways to block the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow; they were built by Italian prisoners of war held in Orkney, who also built the Italian Chapel . These " Churchill Barriers " now provide road access from Mainland to Burray and South Ronaldsay, but block maritime traffic. An airfield, RAF Grimsetter (which later became HMS Robin ),

2400-708: The main sites, primarily from the main harbour at Stromness. Diving provides a substantial amount of trade and income for the local economy. Divers must first obtain a permit from the Island Harbour Authorities, which is available through diving shops and centres. The wrecks are mostly located at depths of 35 to 50 metres. Divers are permitted to enter the wrecks, but not to retrieve artefacts located within 100 metres of any wreck. However, time and tide has washed broken pieces of ships' pottery and glass bottles into shallow waters and onto beaches. The underwater visibility, which can vary between 2 and 20 metres,

2460-476: The old sites have been filled and landscaped, but new operations continue. Following the Aberfan disaster of 1966, when a coal-tip slurry flow buried a school, mine-waste tips, which had been piled precariously on hilltops in many cases, were extensively regraded and reclaimed. This work continues. Landslipping of the steep valley slopes, and subsidence caused by the coal extraction, have also posed problems. A subsidiary of Western Coal (which mainly operates in

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2520-512: The operation, then the bigger battleships and battlecruisers were lifted, by sealing the multiple holes in the wrecks, and welding to the hulls long steel tubes which protruded above the water, for use as airlocks. In this fashion the submerged hulls were made into air-tight chambers and raised with compressed air, still inverted, back to the surface. Cox endured bad luck and frequent fierce storms which often ruined his work, swamping and re-sinking ships which had just been raised. At one stage, during

2580-475: The poems of Idris Davies the miner, teacher and poet of Rhymney . New collieries, particularly in the western part of the coalfield where anthracite is found, were developed into the 1960s by the National Coal Board (for instance, Cynheidre Colliery No 1 shaft, at 798 yards (730 m) deep was sunk in 1954/6). Following the general collapse of the UK coal industry, most pits closed during

2640-507: The previously entirely rural Rhondda Valley. Coal was moved from mines on tramways to canals such as the Swansea Canal and Glamorganshire Canal . These were supplemented, and then superseded, by numerous competing railways which fed the docks at Swansea , Cardiff , Newport , Llanelli and Barry . Later colliery shafts were sunk as deep as 800 yards (730 metres) in order to reach the thicker, better quality seams. Iron ore

2700-482: The second largest of Orkney. Morning to evening ferries run from Houton on the Mainland. The Visitor Centre occupies a converted naval fuel pumping station and storage tank and next to it is a round stone-built battery emplacement and artillery gun as well as other decommissioned arsenal. It features a large model of the island, Scapa Flow and of the German warships. Scapa distillery , a Scotch whisky distillery

2760-484: The ship hulls that were raised (such as the main gun turrets, which fell away from the ships as they capsized) were never salvaged, and still rest on the seabed in close proximity to the impact craters gouged by the scuttled ships. The wrecks of the battleships Royal Oak and Vanguard (the latter of which exploded at anchor during the First World War) are war graves designated as Controlled Sites under

2820-416: The structure is a basin . Folds typically form during crustal deformation as the result of compression that accompanies orogenic mountain building. This article about structural geology is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Scapa Flow Scapa Flow ( / ˈ s k ɑː p ə , ˈ s k æ p ə / ; from Old Norse Skalpaflói  'bay of the long isthmus')

2880-542: The time came for the fleet to move to a northern station, it was chosen for the main base of the British Grand Fleet —unfortified. John Rushworth Jellicoe , admiral of the Grand Fleet, was perpetually nervous about the possibility of submarine or destroyer attacks on Scapa Flow. Whilst the fleet spent almost the first year of the war patrolling the west coast of the British Isles, their base at Scapa

2940-761: The vessels Excalibur and Excelsior . Scapa Flow has a shallow sandy bottom not deeper than 60 metres (200 ft) and most of it is about 30 m (100 ft) deep; it is one of the great natural harbours and anchorages of the world, with sufficient space to hold a number of navies. The harbour has an area of 324.5 square kilometres (125.3 sq mi) and contains just under 1 billion cubic metres of water. Scapa Flow has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports populations of wintering velvet scoters , horned grebes , common loons , European shags and Eurasian curlews , as well as breeding black guillemots . The Viking expeditions to Orkney are recorded in detail in

3000-463: The water or just below the surface. These ships posed a severe hazard to navigation, and small boats, trawlers and drifters, moving around the Flow regularly became snagged on them with the rise and fall of the tides. The Admiralty initially declared that there would be no attempt at salvage, that the sunken hulks would remain where they were, to 'rest and rust.' In the first few years after the war, there

3060-696: The winter, but he died that December while staying at the Bishop's Palace in Kirkwall . In the 15th century towards the end of Norse rule in Orkney, the islands were run by the jarls from large manor farms, some of which were at Burray , Burwick, Paplay, Hoy , and Cairston (near Stromness ) to guard the entrances to the Flow. In 1650 during the wars of the Three Kingdoms , the Royalist general James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose , moored his ship,

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3120-489: Was abundant scrap metal as a result of the huge quantities of leftover tanks, artillery and ordnance. By the early 1920s, the situation had changed. In 1922, the Admiralty invited tenders from interested parties for the salvage of the sunken ships, although at the time few believed that it would be possible to raise the deeper wrecks. The contract went to a wealthy engineer and scrap metal merchant, Ernest Cox , who created

3180-452: Was also extracted from the coal measures, principally from the north crop area (including Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenavon ). The availability of coal and nearby limestone (as a flux) gave rise to a substantial local iron and steel industry which was perpetuated in the 20th century by the location of modern steelworks at Ebbw Vale , Newport and Cardiff and Port Talbot . These used imported iron ore . Coal fuelling of Royal Navy ships

3240-405: Was broken up in 1946. A Morse key recovered from the battleship Grosser Kurfürst during the salvage is displayed at a Fife museum. Primarily because of its great distance from German airfields, Scapa Flow was again selected as the main British naval base during the Second World War. The strong defences built during the First World War had fallen into disrepair. Defence against air attack

3300-491: Was built and commissioned in 1940. Scapa Flow is one of the transfer and processing points for North Sea oil . An underwater pipeline with a diameter of 30 inches (76 cm) and a length of 128 miles (206 km) transports oil from the Piper oilfield to the Flotta oil terminal . The Claymore and Tartan oil fields also feed into this line. The Scapa Flow Visitor Centre is at Lyness on Hoy (from Háey meaning high island)

3360-410: Was defensively reinforced, beginning with over sixty blockships sunk in the many entrance channels between the southern islands to enable the use of submarine nets and booms . These blocked approaches were backed by minefields, artillery, and concrete barriers. Two attempts to enter the harbour were made by German U-boats during the war and neither was successful: After the Battle of Jutland ,

3420-441: Was inadequate and blockships sunk to stop U-boats from penetrating had largely collapsed. While there were anti-submarine nets in place over the three main entrances, they were made only of single-stranded looped wire; there was also a severe lack of the patrolling destroyers and other anti-submarine craft that had previously been available. Efforts began belatedly to repair peacetime neglect, but were not completed in time to prevent

3480-476: Was increasingly challenged from 1904 when strategists including Admiral "Jacky" Fisher and, later, Winston Churchill successfully argued for oil-firing of the steam engines in new ships. Oil, having higher energy density than coal, allowed larger and faster warships, and being easily piped, was easier to supply to ships at sea. By the start of World War I , both the Queen Elizabeth-class and

3540-443: Was not made more radioactive by Nuclear fallout . They also form highly rated dive sites chiefly due to their depth. The light cruisers SMS  Dresden , SMS  Karlsruhe , SMS  Brummer and SMS  Cöln have modest fighting tops, lie side-on with around 16–20 metres of water above, are more accessible for divers and save for the shallowest, Karlsruhe , are less salvaged (stripped of valuable materials) than

3600-415: Was the peak and in subsequent decades the overseas market began to shrink. By 1930, employment in the mines was half of that in 1920 as mechanisation increased leading to a net loss of 314,000 people between 1921 and 1935. The South Wales Coalfield was notorious for the number of fatal accidents in the 19th century. The Risca Black Vein colliery had many fatal accidents to the extent that it became known as

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