Orkney welcomes Australian naval visitors to Scapa Flow

Orkney will be gifted a picture of HMAS Australia leading the surrendered German fleet into Scapa Flow in 1918, during a visit by representatives of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) as part of their centenary year.

Councillor Eoin Scott will formally accept the gift at a ceremony and public lecture by the three visitors on the connections between the history of the Australian Navy, Scapa Flow and Orkney in general, in the St Magnus Centre, on Tuesday October 4 at 7.30pm.

The group will be arriving in Orkney on the Pentalina, sailing into Scapa Flow past Hoxa and Stanger Head, affording a good first view of Scapa Flow. The trip will include a visit to the Royal Oak and Vanguard, on which two Australian sailors died, and the laying of a wreath at the Lyness cemetery.