40 – “Paragraph 11 – Confirm”

On the morning of Saturday 21st June 1919, the first Battle Squadron and its escorting destroyers put to sea for torpedo practice, leaving one British destroyer, a depot ship and a handful of trawlers and drifters to guard the German Fleet.

The closest British vessel to the German fleet that morning was the Admiralty drifter Sochosin. On board was the artist Bernard Gribble making official drawings of the German Fleet.

Gribble commented to the lieutenant commanding the drifter that all the ships were flying two flags, which had first appeared on SMS Emden the previous day.

“Paragraph 11” “Confirm”

The upper was a white ball on a blue pennant, the lower a yellow and blue pennant. The flags seemed innocuous, and even if anyone on the British side could have translated the message, they simply read “Paragraph 11” “Confirm”.

“Condition Z”

At 11.20, the flags on Emden changed to “Condition Z” . . . Scuttle!

Throughout the fleet, sailors open the seacocks – valves in each ship’s bottom designed to drain a ship when in dry dock, or to allow sea water to rush in.

They then disconnected and jettisoned the control rods, to prevent the valves from being closed.

The first indication to the crew of Sochosin that anything was wrong was the sight of German sailors on Friedrich der Grosse and Frankfurt throwing baggage into the ship’s boats, then scrabbling aboard as the boats were lowered

Sochosin headed towards Frankfurt, the closest ship, and ordered the German sailors to return to their ships.

“We have no oars” replied the Germans, who had discarded them. A British sailor responded by throwing a few oars from Sochosin.

German officers demanded to be taken aboard, but the boats that drifted alongside were kept off at gunpoint.

Another drifter Trust-on was transferring supplies received from Germany to Emden when a crowd of German ratings demanded to be taken off as the ship was sinking.

As Emden began to settle by the stern, von Reuter forced his way through the officers and men, and demanded to be taken on board Trust-on. He was given a curt refusal by the skipper, who headed off to the workshop ship Victorious.

There, Rear-Admiral Prendergast radioed Vice Admiral Fremantle, who ordered the recall of the First Battle Squadron and destroyers to Scapa Flow.

Sinking of the German Fleet – Scapa Flow on Saturday 21 June 1919 – Painting by Bernard Gribble