Artefacts from WWI ship that sank in Orkney claiming hundreds of lives reclaimed after a century
More than 100 years after one of the Royal Navy's worst disasters, divers have recovered artefacts from a sunken ship. HMS Vanguard lies on the seabed of Scapa Flow in Orkney, a solemn relic from the tragedy that claimed the lives of 845 lives in 1917.
The ship's bell, along with a metal badge from one of the ship's main guns and a tampion, a protective gun barrel plug, have been carefully brought to the surface after three years of planning.
All three items were located just outside the wreck's exclusion zone and will be loaned to the Scapa Flow Museum once conservation work is complete.
The discovery marks a significant step in preserving the memory of the men who perished in what is believed to be the greatest accidental loss of life in a single incident in Royal Navy history.
HMS Vanguard, a St Vincent-class dreadnought and veteran of the Battle of Jutland, was anchored alongside the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow on July 9, 1917, when a catastrophic explosion in a magazine tore through the ship.
She sank in moments. Only three of the 848 men onboard survived, one of whom later died from his injuries. The cause of the explosion remains uncertain, though it's widely believed to have been an accidental detonation of cordite stored near the magazines.
The wreck now lies at a depth of 34 metres (110 feet) and is protected under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 as a Sovereign Immune Wreck.
Special permission was granted to recover the artefacts, which were discovered during a 2017 survey led by diver Emily Turton as part of centenary commemorations.
Turton's team spent more than 500 hours meticulously mapping the wreck site, which is spread across a large area on the seafloor.
Naval historian Nick Hewitt, now culture team leader at Orkney Islands Council, believes the recovered bell in particular will resonate deeply with the public.
'A hundred years-plus ago your relatives looked at it, heard it ringing,' said Wendy Sadler, whose great-grand uncle Henry Metcalf was among those who died in the sinking.
'To think of what happened to them that night, losing their lives, and it is not seen for another 110 years, it is a privilege and an honour,' she told the BBC. 'We can't stop doing things like this, them fading into history, we've got to keep their memory alive somehow.'
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Sadler is currently leading a project to collect photographs of as many of HMS Vanguard's crew members as possible.
Experts believe the tampion, possibly made from horsehair and leather, may have been preserved thanks to the silty conditions of the seabed. The ship's bell, now bent and warped by the explosion that sank her, was found some 200 metres from the original location of the vessel.
The recovery effort has been a collaborative project involving the Ministry of Defence, the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN), Orkney Islands Council and the Scottish government.
After conservation, the artefacts will take pride of place at the Scapa Flow Museum, honouring the memory of those lost in one of the darkest chapters of British naval history.
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