2-636-965 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'The Surrender of the German High Seas Fleet', 1918 (1919). Upon the signing of the Armistice on 11 November 1918, the Allied powers agreed that Germany's U-boat fleet should be surrendered, but were unable to agree upon a course of action regarding the German surface fleet. The Americans suggested that the ships be interned in a neutral port until a final decision was reached, but the two countries that were approached, Norway and Spain both refused. Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss suggested that the fleet be interned at Scapa Flow with a crew of German sailors, and guarded in the interim by the Grand Fleet. On the morning of 21 November over 370 ships of the Grand Fleet and other allied navies escorted 70 German ships to Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, Scotland. From The Wonder Book of the Navy for Boys and Girls, by Harry Golding. [Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, London, Melbourne and Toronto, 1919]