Editing Scapa Flow (section)

====Scuttling of the German fleet====

{{Main|Scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow}}
Following the German defeat, 74 ships of the [[Imperial German Navy]]'s [[High Seas Fleet]] were interned in [[Gutter Sound]] at Scapa Flow pending a decision on their future in the peace [[Treaty of Versailles]].

On 21 June 1919, after seven months of waiting, German Rear Admiral [[Ludwig von Reuter]] made the decision to scuttle the fleet because the negotiation period for the treaty had lapsed with no word of a settlement. He was not kept informed that there had been a last-minute extension to finalise the details.

After waiting for the bulk of the British fleet to leave on exercises, he gave the order to scuttle the ships to prevent their falling into British hands. The Royal Navy made desperate efforts to board the ships to prevent the sinkings, but the German crews had spent the idle months preparing for the order, welding bulkhead doors open, laying charges in vulnerable parts of the ships, and quietly dropping important keys and tools overboard so valves could not be shut.

The Royal Navy managed to beach the battleship {{SMS|Baden||2}}, the light cruisers ''Emden'', ''Nürnberg'', and ''Frankfurt'' and 18 destroyers whereas 53 ships, the vast bulk of the High Seas Fleet, were sunk. Nine German sailors died on some of these ships when British forces opened fire as they attempted to scuttle the ships, reputedly the last casualties of the war.

{{SMS|Emden|1916|6}} was amongst the ships the British managed to beach. This ''Emden'' should not be confused with [[SMS Emden|her predecessor]], destroyed in the [[Battle of Cocos]] on 9 November 1914 by the Australian light cruiser {{HMAS|Sydney|1912|6}}.

At least seven of the scuttled German ships and some sunken British ships can today be visited by divers.