Cox's Navy: Salvaging the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow, 1924–1931

by Tony Booth

On mid-Summer's Day 1919 the interned German Grand Fleet was scuttled by their crews at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands despite a Royal Navy guard force. Greatly embarrassed, the Admiralty nevertheless confidently stated that none of the ships would ever be recovered. Had it not been for the drive and ingenuity of one man there is indeed every possibility that they would still be resting on the sea bottom today.

Cox's Navy tells the incredible true story of Ernest Cox, a Wolverhampton-born scrap merchant, who, despite having no previous experience, led the biggest salvage operation in history to recover the ships. The 28,000 ton Hindenberg was the largest ship ever salvaged. Not knowing the boundaries enabled Cox to apply solid common sense and brilliant improvisation, changing forever marine salvage practice during peace and war.

292 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[JD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though I was initially disappointed that the book did not have more about the actual scuttling of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the stories of the salvage of these ships. The author does give good background on the vessels that were salvaged, and the bigger ships have their own chapters as each of them had different challenges to overcome. The salvage operations itself is well told and the reader are introduced to all the main men that took part in it. It is also the life story of Ernest Cox, who is a real inspirational man that shows that you can really do anything if you put your mind to it along with a bit of common sense and are willing to go against the main stream. Good read and highly recommended.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating story and man. This is the sort of man who made the Great in Great Britain, and his story reminds one forcibly that we have lost the ability to be innovative, to tackle the "impossible" and to succeed through sheer determination and natural ability. This should be studied in schools.

The book is so well written I couldn't bear to put it down. If you attempted to write a fictional story around this man's achievement you still couldn't beat the reality of what he did.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been lucky enough to dive several of the remaining HSF wrecks at Scapa (together with some of the block ships) and the background given to the raising of the other wrecks sheds an interesting light on the remaining ships. I used to be a commercial deep sea diver and I'm glad I never had to carry out such dives back in the 1920s.

[Jim Knox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read about an obscure piece of history

Wonderful story of the kind of man we need more of. Smart determined and tenacious. It is quite possible that some of us own pieces of the old German fleet all because Cox did his job.

[Martyn Legg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tony has a remarkable ability to make a potentially dull subject come alive. The book was captivating, I felt as though I was there at times in those dark freezing waters! Informative history, thoroughly recommended.