 Kitchener with a party of officials, military aides and personal servants left London by train for Scotland on the evening of 4 June.Lord Kitchener sailed from Scrabster to Scapa Flow on 5 June 1916 aboard HMS "Oak" before transferring to the armoured cruiser HMS "Hampshire" for his diplomatic mission to Russia.At the last minute, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe changed the "Hampshire's" route on the basis of a mis-reading of the weather forecast and ignoring (or not being aware of) recent intelligence and sightings of German U-boat activity in the vicinity of the amended route.