HMSVictoria(1887)
34°32′N35°50′E/ 34.533°N 35.833°E
 HMSVictoriabyWilliam Frederick Mitchell
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMSVictoria |
| Namesake | Queen Victoria |
| Builder | Armstrong, Mitchell & Co.Elswick yard |
| Cost | £845,000 |
| Yard number | 490 |
| Laid down | 13 June 1885 |
| Launched | 9 April 1887 |
| Commissioned | March 1890 |
| Nickname(s) |
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| Fate | Accidentally rammed and sunk, 22 June 1893 |
| General characteristics[3] | |
| Class and type | Victoria-classbattleship |
| Displacement | 11,020 long tons (11,197 t) |
| Length | 340 ft (100 m) |
| Beam | 70 ft (21 m) |
| Draught | 26 ft 9 in (8.15 m) |
| Installed power | |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed |
|
| Complement | 430; as flagship: 583 |
| Armament |
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| Armour |
|
| Service record | |
| Part of: | Mediterranean Fleet |
| Commanders: | CaptainMaurice Bourke |
HMSVictoriawas the lead ship inher classof twobattleshipsof theRoyal Navy.On 22 June 1893, she collided withHMSCamperdownnearTripoli,Lebanon,during manoeuvres and quickly sank, killing 358 crew members, including the commander of theBritish Mediterranean Fleet,Vice-AdmiralSirGeorge Tryon.[4]One of the survivors was executive officerJohn Jellicoe,later commander-in-chief of the BritishGrand Fleetat theBattle of Jutland.
Design
[edit]
Victoriawas constructed at a time of innovation and rapid development in ship design. Her name was originally to beRenown,but this was changed toVictoriawhile still under construction to celebrateQueen Victoria'sGolden Jubilee,which took place the year the ship was launched. Her arrival was accompanied by considerable publicity. She was the largest, fastest and most powerfulironcladafloat, with the heaviest guns.
She was the first battleship to be propelled bytriple-expansion steam engines.[5]These were constructed byHumphrys, Tennant and Companyof Deptford and had cylinders of diameters 43 in (1,100 mm), 62 in (1,600 mm) and 96 in (2,400 mm) with stroke of 4 ft 3 in (1.30 m). They produced 12,000ihp(8,900 kW) under forceddraught,or 7,500 ihp (5,600 kW) under open draught.[6]She was also the first Royal Navy ship to be equipped with asteam turbinewhich was used to run adynamo.
A detailed model of the ship was exhibited at the Royal Navy exhibition in 1892, and another in silver was given to Queen Victoria by the officers of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines as a Jubilee gift.[6]
Design limitations
[edit] |
Despite the ship's many impressive features, compromises in the design meant that she proved less than successful in service.
The ship was nicknamed 'theSlipper' (or when with hersister shipSans Pareil,also attached to the Mediterranean squadron, 'the pair of Slippers') because of a tendency for her low foredeck to disappear from view in even slight seas, and especially, as a result of the low forward deck and raised aft superstructure, for the two ships' humorously perceived resemblance to the indoor footwear.
The forward deck held a single turret with twoBL 16.25 in (413 mm) Mark I guns.The 16.25 in (413 mm) gun was chosen because similar large guns had been used in foreign ships, and because of difficulties in obtaining the navy's preferred 13.5 in (340 mm) design. The great weight of the forward turret with its two guns meant that it had to be mounted low so as not to detract from the ship's stability, and that a similar large gun and turret could not be mounted aft. Instead, the after gun was aBL 10 in (250 mm) gunprotected by a gun shield. The original plan was for main armament fore and aft, and the eventual layout, which followed that of the preceding ironclad battleshipConqueror,was a compromise that meant the ship could only fire her main armament sideways or forward. It was found that if the guns were fired directly forward, the recoil buckled the deck.
The gun barrels were found to be so heavy that they drooped when installed on their mountings, and could fire only 75 rounds before barrel wear became excessive.
Her main armour extended only along some 162 ft (49 m) of her total 340 ft (100 m) length varying from 16–18 in (41–46 cm) thick. By comparison, theFrenchbattleshipAmiral Baudin,constructed at a similar time, had 21.5 in (55 cm) armour along her whole length. However, the British design produced a faster ship with greater range and larger guns.
Captains and fleet commanders
[edit]Victoriawas first commissioned in March 1890 byCaptainJ. E. Stokes, who took the ship to theMediterranean.This crew then swapped ships with the crew ofCamperdown,so that Captain J. C. Burnell now took command. The ship was nowflagshipof the Mediterranean squadron commanded byVice-AdmiralSir Anthony Hoskins. In 1891, Sir George Tryon succeeded as fleet commander and CaptainMaurice Bourkebecame the newflag captainonboardVictoria.[6]
1892 grounding
[edit]
On 29 January 1892,Victoriaran aground at Snipe Point near Platea on the Greek coast. Platea had been selected as a convenient friendly port for British ships to use as a base for exercises with torpedoes and mines, and each ship of the Mediterranean Fleet would go there in turn during the winter.Torpedoeswould be launched from fast moving ships in real battle conditions, but it was desirable to practice this in relatively shallow waters so that the torpedoes could be recovered afterwards (they were supposed to float once their motors stopped but sometimes sank). Captain Bourke had appreciated the potential difficulties of operating his ship in shallow waters, and had ordered a crew to set out a buoy offshore at the place where the water shoaled to 60 ft (18 m). But the crew missed the shallowest point, andVictoriagrounded on the rocky shoal at 9kn(10 mph; 17 km/h) and stuck fast. The fore end of the ship ended up 7 ft (2.1 m) higher out of the water than would be normal as momentum drove it up onto the shoal. The ship's bottom was damaged, and three compartments flooded. The stern, however, was still in 66 ft (20 m) of water. Admiral Tryon was notified and departed for the scene inSurprise,also ordering a dockyardtugSampsonwith pumping equipment and hawsers.Hecla– a torpedo-depot ship – was already at Platea and made two attempts to towVictoriafree. These failed, but she assisted with laying anchors to hold the rear of the ship steady until further help could arrive.Phaeton,Edinburgh,Dreadnought,ScoutandHumberwere also called to the scene.[7]
Victoriawas lightened by removing 1,253 long tons (1,273 t), including 475 long tons (483 t) ofcoalthrown overboard. The leaks were patched up by creating temporary bulkheads and using timber andPortland cementto block holes.DreadnoughtandEdinburgheach had hawsers attached toVictoriaso they could pull astern.Sampsonwas lashed alongside so that she could pull backwards, andVictoria's own engines were run astern. This was sufficient to move the ship, and she was refloated on the evening of 4 February.
The ship proceeded to the new Hamilton Dock in Malta for repairs, being the first ship to use it. The hull plating was ripped and torn for a distance of 70 ft (21 m), with some plates being folded into 'S' shapes, although the mild steel bent rather than cracked. Repairs were completed in time for the summer fleet cruise in May.[8]
Sinking
[edit]On 22 June 1893,Victoriawas leading the Mediterranean Fleet's annual exercises in theEastern Mediterranean.The ship was at the head of a division of ships, while 1,200 yards to starboard was a second division of five ships led byHMSCamperdown.Admiral Tryon ordered a manoeuvre that was to see each ship turn, one after the other in formation, to steam in the opposite direction.[9]However, with the ships just 1,200 yards apart, and an estimated minimum turning circle of at least 1,600 yards,[10]Victoria,the first ship to turn, was struck by the armoured ram ofCamperdownas it turned, causing massive damage to the flagship.Victoriaeventually sank in approximately 15 minutes, with 358 members of the crew, including Admiral Tryon, lost.
Wreck site
[edit]After a search that lasted ten years, the wreck was discovered on 22 August 2004 in 140 metres (460 ft) of water by the Lebanese-Austrian diver Christian Francis, aided by the British diverMark Ellyatt.[11]She stands vertically with thebowand some 30 metres of her length buried in the mud with thesternpointing directly upwards towards the surface. This position is not unique among shipwrecks as first thought, as the RussianmonitorRusalkaalso rests like this. The unusual attitude of this wreck is thought to have been due to the heavy single turret forward containing the main armament coupled with the still-turningpropellersdriving the wreck downwards.
References
[edit]- ^Hough, pp. 47–48.
- ^Hough, p. 48.
- ^Chesneau, Koleśnik & Campbell 1979,p. 30.
- ^"The Mediterranean Disaster".The Times:11. 24 June 1893.
- ^Macintyre, Donald; Bathe, Basil W (1974).Man of War a History of the Combat Vessel.Mcgraw-hill Inc. p. 95.ISBN978-0-07-044585-7.
- ^abcThe Times,24 June 1893, issue 33986, page 7, 'Terrible naval disaster'.
- ^Fitzgerald pp. 333–336.
- ^Fitzgerald pp. 336–338.
- ^"The Loss of the Victoria – Admiral Markham's Despatches".The Times:6. 3 July 1893.
- ^William Laird Clowes; Clements Robert Markham; Alfred Thayer Mahan; Herbert Wrigley Wilson; Theodore Roosevelt; Leonard George Carr Laughton.The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to the Present.Vol. VII. London: Sampson, Low, Marston and Company. pp. 415–426.
- ^Blanford, Nicholas (4 September 2004)."Divers discover British ship wreck after 111 years".The Daily Star.Retrieved30 April2016.
Bibliography
[edit]- Chesneau, Roger; Koleśnik, Eugène M.; Campbell, N.J.M. (1979).Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905.London: Conway Maritime Press.ISBN0-85177-133-5.
- Bennett, Geoffrey (1968).Charlie B: A Biography of Admiral Lord Beresford of Metemmeh and Curraghmore.London: Peter Dawnay Ltd.
- Andrew Gordon,The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command,John Murray.
- David Brown,Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship development 1860–1905,Chatham Publishing.
- Fraser, Kenneth (2020). "Warship Notes: An Unpublished Account of the Loss of HMSVictoria".In Jordan, John (ed.).Warship 2020.Oxford, UK: Osprey. pp. 192–194.ISBN978-1-4728-4071-4.
- Richard Hough,Admirals in Collision,Hamish Hamilton, London. Copyright 1959.
- Parkes, Oscar(1990) [1957].British Battleships.Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.ISBN1-55750-075-4.
- Louis Decimus Rubin,The Summer the Archduke Died: Essays on Wars and Warriors,University of Missouri Press, [2008],ISBN0-8262-1810-5
- Rear-Admiral C. C. Penrose Fitzgerald, Life of Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon K.C.B., William Blackwood and sons, Edinburgh and London, 1897
- The Times,The Loss of HMS Victoria, 2 November 1893, page 4, issue 34098, column A. (Admiralty minutes describing the sinking)
- Minutes of Proceedings at a Court-Martial held on board her Majesty's shipHiberniaat Malta, on Monday, the seventeenth day of July 1893; and by adjournment, every day thereafter (Sunday excepted) to the Twenty-seventh day of July 1893, to enquire into the loss of her Majesty's shipVictoria,Her Majesty's Stationery Office, printed by Darling & son Ltd, 1893.
- Thursfield, James R. (1894). "Chapter XI: The Loss of H.M.S. Victoria". In Brassey, T. A. (ed.).The Naval Annual, 1894.Portsmouth, UK: J. Griffin and Co. pp. 164–178.
External links
[edit]- Victoriamemorial in Portsmouth
- Lebanon Daily Stararticle on the discovery of the wreck
- HMSVictoriaon the wrecksite, including video and position
- Poem by William McGonagall commemorating the loss of theVictoria
- Roll of Honour
