SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm
Depth is the range from the top of the site to its usual maximum; "recommended cert" is the mainstream-agency level operators usually ask for, not a legal rule. Currents and visibility change daily — treat everything here as planning ranges.
Kronprinz Wilhelm is the most approachable of Scapa's three battleships: shallower than Markgraf, her upturned hull reaching to about 20 m, with the seabed at 38. Working along her sides reveals what capsizing preserved — 30.5 cm gun turrets pressed toward the seabed, torpedo-net booms, and hull plating now furred with anemones and draped in kelp at the crown. Divers trace the long walk of the hull, drop to the sand to look into the shadowed gap beneath the superstructure, and surface with a concrete sense of what 'battleship' meant in 1916.
The moment you come for: Main-battery turrets visible at the seabed, manageable battleship depths, dense encrusting life
Topography: A Konig-class battleship capsized on the seabed at roughly 38 m, hull top around 20 m
Entry: Shotline descent onto the upturned hull; dived from Stromness charters throughout the season.
Know before you splash
Hazards: Depth and dark water; loose plating and snag hazards along a collapsing century-old hull.
Conservation: Scheduled monument — look, photograph, remove nothing.
Nitrox: Worth it here — profiles sit in the range where enriched air meaningfully extends no-stop time (with the training to use it).
For photographers
Wide angle: ★★★★☆ · Macro: ★★☆☆☆ — editors' 1–5 rating of what this site gives each style of shooting