A clock salvaged from a German ship scuttled at Scapa Flow – £2200 at Charterhouse.
At 10.30am on June 21 Admiral von Reuter’s seemingly innocuous message Paragraph Eleven; confirm went out, code for his men to scuttle their vessels. Fifty-two out of 70 boats interned at the end of the Great War in Scapa Flow, off the Orkney Islands in Scotland, slid beneath the waves.
One of those which failed to sink itself was V46, a high seas torpedo boat launched in 1914, capable of 34.5 knots.
On June 10 this year a bulkhead clock mounted in a walnut case with a plaque inscribed Salved from V46 Scuttled at Scapa June 21 1919 was estimated at £400-600 in the Charterhouse (25% buyer’s premium) auction. Signed Franz Happe Kiel, 2655 on the 6in (15cm) diameter silvered dial, it sold for £2200.
