The story behind Scuttled Gin

Scuttled Gin, a unique Orkney gin, was launched in December 2018 to mark the centenary of the scuttling of the WWI German High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow on 21st June 1919.

The concept for a Scapa 100 Gin came from local dive boat skipper and Scapa 100 Initiative founder Emily Turton. She said: “I approached Adelle and Stuart with the idea of a Scapa 100 Gin, and they were enthusiastic. It has been great to share the German Fleet’s story with them, and to be the inspiration behind Scuttled Gin is quite an honour. Being involved in the conception to final product process has been interesting, and I loved collaborating on the bottle design and logo. Of course, the real genius is what is inside the bottle which, in my opinion, is very special indeed!”

The German Fleet and Scapa Flow

The world has just commemorated the centenary of the Armistice, but this is where the story of the German Fleet and Scapa Flow begins. As part of the armistice agreement made on the 11th of November 1918, 74 ships of the WWI German High Seas Fleet were to be interned in Scapa Flow.

Seventy-one ships set sail from Germany on the 21st of November to be met by the full force of the British Navy and escorted initially to the Firth of Forth. They arrived in Orkney over the coming weeks with the last ship, the battleship SMSÂ Baden, not coming until the 11th of January 2019. They lay at anchor in Scapa over the winter of 1918/1919 and were used as a bargaining tool in the peace process leading to the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919, which officially ended WWI.

On the 21st of June, 1919, fearful that the British intended to seize his ships and denied up to date news from the Paris Peace Conference, Admiral von Reuter initiated his plan to scuttle most of the interned High Seas Fleet. The Germans sank fifty ships in what was to be the greatest scuttling of all time. The world’s most significant feat of marine salvage ensued.

Today just eight vessels remain. The wrecks of Scapa Flow now offer an insight into a lost world of warship building and remain one of the best WWI wreck diving destinations in the world. To keep up to date, check out the Facebook page: facebook.com/scapa100/