The Wreck That Almost Got Away
During an attack on a Royal navy ship, crew tried, and failed, to escape on a small boat. After 78 years, the vessel has been found.
Courtesy University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology InstituteThe Royal Oak’s steam pinnace is now covered with marine growth.
In the early days of World War II, Royal navy crewmen attempted to escape the wreck of HMS Royal Oak using a steam pinnace, only to capsize their escape vessel. Seventy-eight years later, underwater archaeologists have finally found the remains of this wayward craft.
On October 13, 1939, German submarine U-47 infiltrated Scotland’s Scapa Flow and fired three torpedoes at Royal Oak. The battleship, at anchor in a safe harbor, was taken by complete surprise. Royal Oak was underwater in minutes, and those who were able to escape the sinking ship faced a half-mile swim to shore through bone-chilling water slick with oil. By the end of the ordeal, 834 of the ship’s 1,200 crewmen would perish.
Some tried to escape using Royal Oak’s port side pinnace, a 50-foot steam powered boat tethered to the side of the battleship. There had not been enough time to get the pinnace up to steam, so men resorted to paddling it with boards. The vessel had a capacity of 59, but it was crammed with about 100 men. Shortly after getting underway, the boat capsized and was lost to history.
Watch Video of Divers Descending on the Wreck of the HMS Royal Oak
The missing pinnace has finally been found by archaeologists as part of the collaborative Shiptime Maritime Archaeology Project, surveying wrecks in Scapa Flow. It was found more than 950 feet from the wreck of Royal Oak using multibeam sonar.
The project is led by Sandra Henry of UHI Archaeology Institute, Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology, the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute, and Kevin Heath of SULA Diving in Stromness, Scotland. Divers from SULA Diving were sent down to investigate the wreck.
“It is a great privilege to be involved with the monitoring of such an important wreck site as HMS Royal Oak and in finding the missing pinnace,” Pete Higgins, ORCA senior project manager, said in a statement. “The site will now be recorded and will add to our knowledge surrounding the sinking of HMS Royal Oak.”
