At the end of The First World War the German fleet was imprisoned at Scapa Flow in The Orkney Islands. Some time later (for reasons unconnected with blacksmithing) they were scuttled. Last night in the pub I was talking to a commercial diver and both of us had a vague memory of the steel from these vessels being used for surgical steel (Something to do with radioactivity?), does anyone know anything about this?

Certain nuclear instruments require components made of lead with almost no radioactive components, a.k.a. low-background lead. All lead mined or processed since about July 16, 1945, has been contaminated by nuclear fallout. (In tiny amounts, of course, but for extremely sensitive instruments those tiny amounts matter.) Lead from shipwrecks that went down prior to the first nuclear detonation is a big (the only?) source of low-background lead. It can be many times more valuable than newly mined lead. That may be what you're thinking of. I don't know if there's a similar issue with steel.

On a bit of a tangent here, I was recently chatting with divermike about Lake Erie shipwrecks in the 19th century and the fact that lots of them had cargoes of iron.
Lake Erie is fresh water and shallow, mostly 120' or less and certainly those wrecks are reachable with SCUBA gear, well within recreational diving limits. Could be lots of wrought out there to be had for the adventurous soul to explore...

Dan, Unless my memory fails me completely the cargo of those ships was Iron ore. However depending on where they landed the ship itself was probably made up of wrought Iron componets that may or may not be sound.

Just because it is in fresh water doen't mean that it doesn't corrode. It will have lower levels of encrusted marine growth.

O.K. let me clarify, if you go check this stuff out yourself (very interesting stuff, the stories of these wrecks) you will see many of these lost ships have their cargoes listed in detail. Yes, many list iron ore, or just iron or just ore but some list "iron bars",etc. Just google Lake Erie shipwrecks, or any body of water for that matter.

I know nothing about the radioactive bit but the German sailors are the ones that scuttled the ships rather then turn them over to the British Navy. I'm thinking if there were any anvils on board the German ships maybe they could be recovered. Yeah I know I'm one lump short of full load.:rolleyes:

Hi Sam. The old timers at Brown Lennox, always said that the German warships in the first world war were clad in a plate with a very high chromium content, something to do with anti magnetism/degausing rather than corosion resistance. But they also said that Monmouthshire was in Wales so what did they know! For my four penneth, anything in that part of the North Sea, can stay there, too bloody cold in high summer for anyone in their right mind to go looking for it.
Paul Hook

Certain nuclear instruments require components made of lead with almost no radioactive components, a.k.a. low-background lead. All lead mined or processed since about July 16, 1945, has been contaminated by nuclear fallout.

I don't know if there's a similar issue with steel.

Yep, at least according these: Welding Forum > Pre-nuclear steel? and why raise Nazi u boats?

There is a book about the salvaging of the German fleet at Scapa flow. It tells the story of why the ships were sunk and how they were raised.

"The man who bought a Navy", by Gerald Bowman

The Wikipedia entry: Scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And a quote from that: "The remaining wrecks lie in deeper waters, in depths up to 47 metres, and there has been no economic incentive to attempt to raise them since. Minor salvage is still carried out to recover small pieces of steel that can be used in radiation sensitive devices, such as Geiger counters, as the ships sank before nuclear weapons and tests irradiated the world's supply of steel"

Thanks everyone, that's answered my question.
Re lysdexik:Borders do change if one is not careful, but the Welsh are welcome to Monmouth! 500 years ago Ludlow was the capital of Wales and we've got the castle to prove it:
Ludlow Castle in Shropshire

Be carefull Dave, all shipwrecks in Erie are historical sites and you can get in ALOT of trouble for taking stuff off of them. I have dove on three around Kelly's Island and it was a blast.