Stromness, Scotland, United Kingdom

SMS Brummer

SMS Brummer is a German light minelaying cruiser scuttled in Scapa Flow on 21 June 1919, lying on its starboard side at depths between roughly 22 and 36 metres. The 140-metre wreck is one of the most photogenic and beginner-friendly of the Scapa Flow cruisers because of its relatively shallow keel, intact bow, and surviving 15cm guns still trained on imaginary horizons. Divers can swim along the open deck, explore the gun mounts, the bridge area where the rangefinder once stood, the davits, and follow the hull to the stern. Visibility is often 8 to 12 metres in summer, and water temperature ranges from 6 to 12 degrees Celsius year-round. Plumose anemones, dead man's fingers and hydroids carpet the structure, and the wreck supports populations of pollack, ballan wrasse, ling, conger eels and occasional cod. Currents inside the Flow are moderate, and dives are run from Stromness charter boats around slack water windows. Brummer is regarded as one of the classic introductory dives to the Scapa Flow High Seas Fleet experience.