SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm (Wreck)

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She was one of the biggest warships in the world. After her launch at Kiel in 1914, the Kiel Canal had to be widened to get the huge Kronprinz Wilhelm through to fight Britain's equally massive Dreadnoughts.

The Kronprinz Wilhelm weighed 25,388 tons, with her main armour plate over a foot thick around her turrets and fire control tower and another 4in of armour covering her decks. She was 575ft long with a beam of 97ft and a draught of more than 30ft. Into this was packed huge firepower from ten 12in guns, fourteen 5.9in guns and eight 3.4in guns, including anti-aircraft guns.

The Kronprinz Wilhelm even had five 20in torpedo tubes (one in the bow and four in the beam). And despite all this weight, her 46,000hp turbines could give a top speed of more than 21 knots.

The battleship came through the Battle of Jutland undamaged, having kept up fast and accurate fire on the British Grand Fleet from her position in the van with the Third Squadron of the German High Seas Fleet. Later she was torpedoed by the British submarine J1 while providing heavy back-up for the rescue of Kapitanleutnant Walther Schwieger, the man who sank the Lusitania, and his crew of U20, which had been stranded on the Danish coast.

The torpedo from J1 left a huge hole in the side of the Kronprinz Wilhelm. Only her watertight compartments and cork packing made it possible for her to limp back to port.

Repairs in dry dock took months and the ship was to fight no more. At the end of 1918 when she was ordered to sea her crew mutinied, joining the rest of the German Fleet in refusing to obey orders. After the Armistice, she was one of the battleships surrendered at Scapa Flow.

The Kronprinz Wilhelm was given an anchoring position "three-quarters of a mile north-east of the Calf of Cava". Close by were her sister-ships König and Markgraf, each with caretaker crews of about 200 Germans on board.

At 11.15pm on 21 June, 1919, the Kronprinz Wilhelm went down quietly and upright to the seabed in 36m, to be joined a few hours later by her sisters. These and four other Scapa Flow wrecks were recently scheduled for protection under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.