Scapa Flow Scuttle
January 2nd, 2009 From
>Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 16:09:52 -0800
>From: Mike Potter
>Organization: Artecon, Inc.
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01Gold (WinNT; I)
>To: mahan@microworks.net
>Subject: Re: Scapa Flow Scuttle
>Precendence: bulk
>Sender: mahan-owner@microworks.net
>Reply-To: mahan@microworks.net
>
>Dan van der Vat mentions the uncomtaminated steel story in his =The
>Grand Scuttle=. Other pre-1945 ships don’t seem to get special attention
>for their steel when they are scrapped. =Coral Sea= is being scrapped
>now. Does her steel carry a premium?
>
>This legend might have started with a story that the U of Utah installed
>an armored section from USS =Indiana= around a radiological lab because
>it was uncontaminated (perhaps true but consistent with possible
>salesmanship by a lab staff competing for research grants).
>
>Ex-USS/KM =Prinz Eugen= remains unscrapped in shallow water because her
>steel is contaminated, supposedly by long use of radium dials on
>displays rather than from Bikini’s test Baker. USNIP had an article on
>this about 20 years ago. If radium dials were indeed a source of
>contamination, the Scapa Flow ships might have the same problem and
>therefore present more rather than less of a radiation hazard.
>
>Van der Vat’s book doesn’t mention retribution against the Germans by
>the British, other than they verbally denounced the German admiral who
>commanded the scuttling. The US Govt was happy to hear that the fleet
>was sunk since it removed an awkward point of contention with the
>British; check the NY Times for the days following the scuttling.
>
> > My command of the field of metallurgy is not encylopedic, but I am VERY
> > skeptical about the radiation shielding. Iron ores or several > types are very
> > common and finding “uncontaminated” ore I should would be very easy.
>
>–
>Michael C. Potter, Mgr, TelCo/Govt Programs mike.potter@artecon.com
>Artecon, Inc. | | mail PO Box 9000
>6305 El Camino Real -|- _|_ Carlsbad CA
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