Sms Kronprinz Wilhelm: Cava Sound, Scapa Flow, Orkney

Battleship (20th Century)-(1919)

Overview

SMS Kronprinz, renamed Kronprinz Wilhelm in 1918, came through Jutland without a hit, was later torpedoed by British submarine J1, and fought a Russian battleship during Operation Albion. Her crew deliberately sank her at Scapa Flow on 21 June 1919. Stoker Karl Bauer was shot and killed by British guards during the attempt to prevent the scuttling; he is buried at Lyness. The almost overturned battleship still has much of its armour and guns, including five visible main guns, making it one of the clearest surviving examples of a First World War German battleship.

The vessel and voyage

The battleship entered service as Kronprinz late in 1914 and joined the Third Battle Squadron. She supported the 1916 raid on Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth and sailed near the front at Jutland, where she escaped damage and deaths. British submarine J1 torpedoed her in November 1916, and a collision with Grosser Kurfürst flooded her again in March 1917. During Operation Albion she engaged the Russian battleship Grazhdanin and hit it twice while remaining undamaged herself. Renamed Kronprinz Wilhelm in June 1918, she sailed from Germany to British internment that November and spent the following seven months with a reduced crew at Scapa Flow.

How it was lost

Kronprinz Wilhelm lay at Scapa Flow with a small German care crew while the victorious countries argued over the fleet's future. Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter thought the Armistice was about to end and feared the ships would be taken; he did not know that the final deadline had moved. On 21 June 1919, when most British guard ships had gone to sea for an exercise, his coded signal put a plan made in advance into action. Crews opened valves and other holes below and above the waterline, then abandoned ship. Kronprinz Wilhelm sank at about 1.15pm, the first of the three surviving König-class battleships to reach the bottom.

Deaths and survival

Stoker Karl Bauer of Kronprinz Wilhelm was seriously wounded and then killed when British guards aboard two small vessels fired repeatedly during the attempt to stop the scuttling. The checked local ship sheet records him as this vessel's one death. He is buried in the Royal Naval Cemetery at Lyness, where his grave makes the individual loss visible beside the story of enormous ships. The other members of the reduced crew got away from the sinking battleship and became prisoners. No one is recorded as drowning inside her. Bauer was one of nine Germans killed across the fleet that day; assigning all nine to every ship would make each wreck's story false.

What remains

The wreck lies north-east of Cava, turned almost upside down and resting on its starboard deck. Historic Environment Scotland records visible remains from about 14 to 40 metres, while a diving survey gives roughly 12 to 38 metres; the difference reflects the point and date measured rather than a different wreck. Much of the armoured hull survives and five of the ten 12-inch main guns can still be seen, along with rudders, gun positions and massive machinery. Salvors removed valuable metal and opened parts of the ship, but did not raise it. The hull, scattered pieces and seabed around it are protected, and removal is illegal.

Why it mattered

Kronprinz Wilhelm shows that a major warship's history is more than one famous battle. She survived Jutland untouched, endured a submarine torpedo and collision, fought in the Baltic and then was destroyed by her own side after the war had stopped. Her sinking helped deny the Allies the fleet they expected to divide, while Bauer's death makes clear that the act still cost lives. For Orkney, the battleship became part of a landscape of German graves, museum objects, salvage work and diving. Because much armour and half the main guns remain visible, the wreck offers unusually direct evidence of how a German dreadnought was built and armed.

History checked 15 August 2026 against the named sources below.

A wreck point does not grant permission to dive, disturb the site or recover anything. Check current law and local conditions first.

Sources

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