History sometimes gives old objects an unexpected second life.In the summer of 1919, a remarkable event unfolded beneath the waters of Scapa Flow, a sheltered body of water in Scotland's Orkney Islands. German sailors deliberately sank much of their country's surrendered naval fleet rather than allow the vessels to be divided among the victorious Allied powers.The ships had been constructed before the nuclear age. Their steel was therefore free from the atmospheric contamination connected with nuclear weapons testing, making some of it valuable for highly sensitive scientific and industrial applications.The story of the Scapa Flow fleet is consequently about far…