SMS Markgraf

Markgraf fought at Jutland and now lies almost fully inverted in the deepest water of the German fleet, her upturned hull rising from around 45 m to the mid-twenties. The scale registers slowly: a wall of riveted plate longer than a football pitch, rudders raised toward the light, and along the port side the crushed gallery where casemate guns and portholes emerge from the shadows. This is a dive of atmosphere rather than easy sightseeing (dark, deep and unforgiving of poor planning), and for many wreck divers it is the single best thing in British waters.

Het moment waar je voor komt: Dreadnought scale in the gloom, casemate guns along the hull side, the fleet's most prestigious tick

Topografie: A Konig-class battleship lying nearly upside down on a silt-and-shell seabed at about 45 m

Instap: Shotline descent from Stromness charter boats; the deepest and most demanding of the German fleet.

Gevaren: Depth, darkness, silt and inverted orientation that disorients; penetration is a technical-team undertaking only.

Behoud: A scheduled monument: nothing is removed, nothing disturbed. A century of salvage history already scars the fleet; divers should not add to it.

Nitrox: Hier de moeite waard: profielen liggen in het bereik waar nitrox de no-stop-tijd zinvol verlengt (met de juiste training om het te gebruiken).