SMS Cöln.
SMS Cöln was a Cöln-class light cruiser, sister of SMS Dresden, completed in January 1918 and scuttled in Scapa Flow on 21 June 1919. She lies on her starboard side in about 36 m and is regarded as one of the most intact of the German cruiser wrecks.
What's down there.
- Knife-edge bow with fairlead and city shields
- Armoured control tower with rangefinder arm and viewing slits
- Two stern 5.9-inch guns
- Torpedo tubes and torpedo storage housings
- Aft auxiliary steering position and large rudder
- Blasted turbine room – a tangle of plates, pipes and valves
- Scallops
- Sea anemones
- Sea urchins
- Dead man's fingers
- Shoaling fish
- Seals (often seen)
Least depth on the upper (port) side c. 18–22 m by source; seabed 34–36 m
Very little current; visibility typically 3–9 m. Described by operators as an easy wreck to navigate that does not demand involved technical diving, though her depth rewards extended dives, and swim-throughs need care. Suitable for experienced sport divers; longer or deeper dives suit mixed-gas or rebreather divers.
How it got there.
Cöln was built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, launched on 5 October 1916 and commissioned on 17 January 1918, her first commander being Fregattenkapitän Erich Raeder, later head of the German navy. She was about 155.5 m long and displaced 5,620 tonnes normally and 7,486 tonnes at full load, with eight 15 cm guns, torpedo tubes and capacity for 200 mines. Serving with the II Scouting Group, her war service was limited to minelaying and patrols in the German Bight, and she was assigned to the planned final fleet sortie of October 1918, which was abandoned after the mutinies. After the Armistice she went to the Firth of Forth on 21 November 1918 and then to internment at Scapa Flow. She was scuttled on 21 June 1919 and sank at about 13:50. Like Dresden she was never raised; salvage rights were sold in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and salvors removed her two bow guns and blasted into the turbine room. The rights expired in 1985 and the wreck was sold to Orkney Islands Council for £1 on 3 November 1986.
2 dives.
From the reconstructed log — the dates follow the pattern I dived, so read them as representative rather than exact.