An Austrian Scapa Flow according to the Dutch newspaper Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant evening edition dated 30 January 1920

The press association Reuter reported from Rome that the former Austrian warship Novara which was handed over to France after the First World War sunk while being escorted by French ships when she was towed from Cattaro to Brindisi.(1) According to this item was earlier reported that the Austrian warships were unrepairable damaged. Another Dutch newspaper Het Vaderland: staat- en letterkundig nieuwsblad evening edition dated 30 January 1920 confirmed the contents of this news item but published earlier in the morning edition dated 14 January the next information. The reporter referred to Scapa Flow(2) and wrote that when the tugs which came from Bizerta to Cattaro to take the Austrian warships consisting of 3 battleships, 4 destroyers and 12 torpedo boats they discovered that these warships were so severe damaged that they were in fact unrepairable.

Notes

1. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Novara_(1913) was this the cruiser Novara laid down 1912 and launched in 1913 with a displacement of 3,500 tons and as dimensions 424 x 42. Although the Dutch news item suggested that she hardly could be repaired she was taken into French naval service as the Thionville, decommissioned in 1942 and the same year broken up.

2. In Scapa Flow, Orkney islands scuttled in June 1919 the crews of the interned German High Seas Fleet their ships preventing that they became allied property.