SMS Dresden.
SMS Dresden was a Cöln-class light cruiser of the Imperial German Navy, completed in 1918 and scuttled in Scapa Flow on 21 June 1919. She was never raised and lies on her port side on a sloping seabed off Cava. She is one of the more intact of the German wrecks, although her decks are now collapsing.
What's down there.
- Port anchor with chain running through the hawse pipe
- Twin capstans on the foredeck
- Armoured control tower with viewing slits
- 5.9-inch (15 cm) guns, some still in place
- Intact stern with capstan, kedge anchor and rudder
- Coal and firebricks spilling from the boiler areas
- Conger eels among the boiler firebricks
- Lobster
- Crab
- Scallops
- Plumose anemones
- Dead man's fingers
- Sponges
Least depth c. 17 m (other sources put the bow at 24–27 m); seabed 35–38 m, stern deepest
Sheltered water in Scapa Flow with generally little current; visibility typically 3–9 m. The wreck lies on a slope, so depth changes quickly from bow to stern. Accessible to experienced sport divers on the upper side, but the deeper stern and any penetration suit technical divers; the wreck is degrading and sections of deck have fallen away.
How it got there.
Dresden was built by Howaldtswerke in Kiel, launched on 25 April 1917 and commissioned on 28 March 1918. She was a Cöln-class light cruiser of about 155.5 m in length, displacing 5,620 tonnes normally and 7,486 tonnes at full load, and armed with eight 15 cm guns, anti-aircraft guns, torpedo tubes and provision for mines. Commissioned so late in the war, she saw no battle; she took part in a fruitless sortie towards Norway in April 1918 and was earmarked for the planned final fleet sortie of October 1918, which was cancelled when the fleet mutinied. Interned at Scapa Flow from December 1918, she was scuttled on 21 June 1919 on the orders of Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter and sank at about 13:50 before British sailors could beach her. She was never raised. Salvage rights to Dresden and her sister Cöln were sold in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and parts of the hulls were removed underwater, including most deck guns and much of the turbine rooms. 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.