A large torpedo found on the Scapa Flow seabed has been destroyed after a daring three day mission by Royal Navy divers. The device was initially discovered during a routine survey in the waters off Orkney last week with a 100 metre exclusion zone immediately put in place.
A five-strong Explosive Ordnance Disposal team travelled 400-miles north from their base at Faslane to reach the scene on Friday. Charlie Squadron’s Chief Petty Officer (Diver) Roy Edwards told how the mission was made more difficult due to the explosive lying perilously close to an oil pipeline.
He said: “It was a challenging task. The suspected ordnance was located 210 metres from an oil pipeline and the weather was also an issue with a sea state 2-3 and wind gusting at 20 knots. The torpedo was very degraded, and we needed to move it to a safe location, away from the pipeline, before it could be safely disposed of.
“It was a delicate job.”
The three-day operation was broken down into several phases. After diving, locating, and marking the torpedo, the team next attached straps and used underwater lifting equipment to raise it carefully to the surface.
The torpedo was then towed some four kilometres to a new location well away from underwater cables, pipelines, and fish farms. Finally, just after 5pm on Sunday, the divers carried out a controlled underwater explosion to dispose of the ordnance.
The torpedo was badly degraded meaning experts were unable to definitively identify it, however, it is believed to be a Mark 8 torpedo which first entered production in the 1920s.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here .
