HMS Royal Oak

HMS Royal Oakby Peter RowlandsOn the night of Friday 13thOctober 1939, HMS Royal Oak, a 600foot long 29,000 ton Dreadnoughtbattleship, was sunk by torpedoes from aGerman U boat which had penetrated theBritish Navy s main anchorage at ScapaFlow in Orkney. 833 men lost their livesand the 2nd World War was just sixweeks there were survivors,thanks mainly to the heroic work of theskipper and crew of the tiny tenderDaisy2. No more than 100 feet long andjust 15 feet wide, she managed to rescue386 men from the icy, oil covered watersof Scapa Flow in total darkness in theearly hours of Saturday of the 833 escaped only todie of their wounds and they are buriedin the Naval cemetery at Lyness on thenearby island of Hoy and a remembranceplaque was placed on the wall of StMagnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, thecapital of Orkney. Royal Oak s bell wasadded to this display when it was foundby Navy divers in the 1970 s.

HMS Royal Oak by Peter Rowlands On the night of Friday 13th October 1939, HMS Royal Oak, a 600 foot long 29,000 ton Dreadnought battleship, was sunk by …

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