The factual record is short. The armoured cruiser sank off the Orkney coast near Marwick Head. Of those on board, 737 died, among them Kitchener and his staff. Twelve men survived. The people of Orkney raised a memorial to Kitchener on Marwick Head after the First World War.
Because his body was not recovered and the mission to Russia was secret, rumours followed. One persistent story named Duquesne, said to have joined Kitchener in Scotland disguised as a Russian aristocrat, signalled the U-boat, left the ship on a raft and later received the Iron Cross. There is no evidence for this.
A blog account also says that the RNLI at Stromness asked the naval headquarters if it should launch the lifeboat and was firmly refused, and that people who hurried to the cliffs found armed soldiers keeping them back. I have not traced these details to a primary source.
This record keeps to the documented rumour. It makes no claim of a ghost, and the 737 men deserve respect.
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