HMS Victoria

1893

Tripoli, the admiral's own order Location: Mediterranean, off Tripoli, Lebanon · Coordinates: 34.50°N 35.87°E · Casualties: 358 · Survivors: 357 · Depth: 140 m · Cause: collision — Rammed by HMS Camperdown in clear weather off Tripoli on 22 June 1893. Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon had ordered two columns of battleships to turn inward toward each other with insufficient space to complete the manoeuvre. The ram struck Victoria's starboard bow; she rolled over and sank in fifteen minutes. · Fate: located 2004 · upright, vertical · Type: battleship · barbette ship · Tonnage: 11,020 tons · Crew: 715 · Flag: United Kingdom · Launched: 1887 Royal Navy battleship, flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon. On 22 June 1893 off Tripoli in Lebanon, Tryon ordered two columns of battleships to turn inward toward each other; HMS Camperdown's ram struck her starboard bow, and she rolled over and sank in fifteen minutes. 358 dead, including Tryon, who reportedly said 'It was entirely my fault' as the deck tilted beneath them. A court martial cleared the surviving officers: the admiral's order had been so obviously wrong that no one had been brave enough to disobey it. The Vessel HMS Victoria was the lead ship of her class of British Royal Navy battleships, commissioned at the Armstrong Whitworth yard at Elswick on 12 March 1890. She was 104 metres long, 11,020 tons standard displacement, armed with two 16.25-inch guns in a single forward turret and twelve 6-inch guns in a secondary battery. Her design speed was 17.5 knots on two-shaft triple-expansion engines. The Victoria-class design (two ships: Victoria and Sans Pareil) represented a specific phase of Victorian-era Royal Navy capital-ship design. The class's 16.25-inch main armament was the heaviest ever mounted on a Royal Navy warship; the specific gun and turret design had been developed in response to the French Navy's comparable heavy-gun warships of the 1880s. By 1893 the class had been superseded by the newer battleship designs but remained in first-line Mediterranean Fleet service. Her commanding officer in June 1893 was Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon, 61, one of the most senior and most respected flag officers in the Royal Navy. Tryon flew his flag in Victoria as commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet; his specific reputation was for operational seamanship and for experimental tactical doctrine. He had developed, through the 1880s and early 1890s, a specific approach to fleet manoeuvring known as the "TA" system (Tryon's alphabet) that emphasised the use of complex signalled manoeuvres to test the operational readiness of the fleet. The Disaster The two columns began their inward turn at approximately 15:35 on 22 June 1893. By 15:40 the two columns were approaching each other at a combined closing speed of approximately 20 knots. Captain Archibald Bourke of Victoria attempted to signal Tryon about the imminent collision, but Tryon did not authorise an evasive manoeuvre. At 15:45 on 22 June 1893, HMS Camperdown's reinforced ram bow struck HMS Victoria's starboard side at Frame 45. The impact was severe: Camperdown's ram penetrated approximately 6 metres into Victoria's hull below the waterline, producing a hull breach that immediately flooded Victoria's forward engine room, forward boiler room, and forward magazine. HMS Victoria listed heavily to starboard within 90 seconds of the strike. Vice-Admiral Tryon remained on Victoria's bridge throughout the final sequence; his specific conduct in the moments before the sinking was recorded by surviving witnesses. Tryon's last recorded statement, according to the survival testimony of his flag lieutenant, was: "It is entirely my fault." HMS Victoria capsized and sank at 15:52 on 22 June 1893 at approximately 34°41′N 35°42′E, in approximately 150 metres of water off Tripoli, Lebanon. The capsize was rapid: the ship rolled onto her starboard beam ends and sank stern-first with her propellers still turning. Of her 715 crew, 358 died, including Vice-Admiral Tryon. 357 survivors were rescued by the boats of the remaining Mediterranean Fleet vessels.