Photos

Shot taken while crossing the "Churchill Barriers". Please have a look at an extract from Wikipedia article about Scapa Flow:

Scapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, surrounded by the Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy islands. It is best known as the site of the United Kingdom's chief naval base during the First and Second World Wars.

Already used by warships in the Viking era, the base remained in use by the Royal Navy until 1956. During both World Wars, German U-boats tried to attack British ships in Scapa Flow.

After one of such attacks Winston Churchill ordered the construction of a series of causeways to block the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow. These "Churchill barriers" now provide road access from Mainland to Burray and South Ronaldsay.

Following the German defeat in the First World War, 74 ships of the Kaiserliche Marine's High Seas Fleet were interned in Gutter Sound at Scapa Flow pending a decision on their future in the peace Treaty of Versailles. They arrived in November 1918, after the Armistice, and soon became something of a tourist attraction. On June 21, 1919, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, the German officer in command at Scapa Flow, after waiting for the bulk of the British fleet to leave on exercises, gave the order to scuttle the ships to prevent their falling into British hands. Fifty-one ships sank. The nine sailors killed were the last casualties of the First World War.

After the war some of the metal obtained from wrecks has been used in space satellites. Metal forged before 1945 did not absorb the radioactivity in the atmosphere from nuclear detonations, and will have a smaller effect on fine sensors used in space.