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Shipwreck

HMS Royal Oak

Scapa Flow, Orkney

A battleship sunk in Britain's safest harbour by a daring U-boat.

Scapa Flow was thought to be safe from submarines. But on the night of 14 October 1939, the German U-boat U-47 slipped in through a narrow channel and torpedoed the battleship HMS Royal Oak.

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Open HMS Royal Oak on the mapReport a sighting here
When
14 October 1939
Where
58.9300, -2.9800
Group
Shipwrecks

Visiting

A buoy marks the wreck. The Scapa Flow Museum at Lyness tells the story.

Cover of Blood and Gold by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

Blood and Gold

Sixteen true stories of mutiny, mercy, treasure and the gallows from the Golden Age of Piracy: Henry Every, Bartholomew “Black Bart” Roberts, Edward England, Howell Davis, Christopher Moody, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Charles Vane, Benjamin Hornigold, Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, Israel Hands, Calico Jack, Edward Low, Captain William Kidd and Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy. Where the record is uncertain, the book says so.

Buy on AmazonAll books by Cale Mills

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