Admiral Commanding, Orkneys and Shetlands Admiral Commanding, Orkneys and Shetlands The Admiral Commanding, Orkneys and Shetlands was an operational commander of the Royal Navy. His subordinate units, establishments, and staff were sometimes informally known as the Orkneys and Shetlands Command; they were charged with the administration of the Orkney and Shetland Islands and operating and defending the fleet base at Scapa Flow that was the main anchorage for both the Home Fleet and Grand Fleet at various times. The Orkney and Shetland command was usually only formed at the outbreak of war to provide for the defence and administration of the main base for the
Fleet in being Vladivostok on 10 August 1904. Vitgeft's exit from Port Arthur resulted in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, an excessively long-ranged gun duel that resulted in no capital warships being sunk on either side, but finally eliminated Port Arthur's "fleet in being", as its warships became dispersed to neutral ports (where they were interned), and the survivors were so heavily damaged that they were no longer serviceable. A later example is the stand-off between the German High Seas Fleet and the British Grand Fleet during World War I. Germany largely preferred to keep its fleet intact rather than taking the