HMS Victoria was the lead ship in her class of two battleships of the Royal Navy. On 22 June 1893, she collided with near Tripoli, Lebanon, during manoeuvres and quickly sank, killing 358 crew members, including the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon. One of the survivors was executive officer John Jellicoe, later commander-in-chief of the British Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland.

Design

thumb|left|Scale model of Victoria, as she was when launched in 1887 from Elswick, located in the [[Discovery Museum in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne]]

Victoria was constructed at a time of innovation and rapid development in ship design. Her name was originally to be Renown, but this was changed to Victoria while still under construction to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, which took place the year the ship was launched. Her arrival was accompanied by considerable publicity. She was the largest, fastest and most powerful ironclad afloat, with the heaviest guns.

She was the first battleship to be propelled by triple-expansion steam engines. These were constructed by Humphrys, Tennant and Company of Deptford and had cylinders of diameters , and with stroke of . They produced under forced draught, or under open draught. She was also the first Royal Navy ship to be equipped with a steam turbine which was used to run a dynamo.

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.

Victoria was lightened by removing , including of coal thrown overboard. The leaks were patched up by creating temporary bulkheads and using timber and Portland cement to block holes. Dreadnought and Edinburgh each had hawsers attached to Victoria so they could pull astern. Sampson was lashed alongside so that she could pull backwards, and Victorias own engines were run astern. This was sufficient to move the ship, and she was refloated on the evening of 4 February. thumb|Victoria in the dry dock at Malta. [[The Graphic 1892]]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 , 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.

Sinking

thumb|right|HMS Victoria sinking

On 22 June 1893, Victoria was leading the Mediterranean Fleet's "steam tactics" in the Eastern Mediterranean, an exercise consisting of a series of "equal speed" manoeuvres which had been developed, in part by Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby, to allow steam powered ships of different design to be handled in close company. Steam tactics were a product of an expectation that ironclads could provide fire to attack fortifications, but the long reload times and inaccuracy of rifled muzzle-loading guns meant that larger ships would have to operate en masse, inshore, and possibly in shallower waters than they previously had in order to meet this capability.

Victoria was at the head of a division of ships with Tryon onboard, while to starboard was a second division of five ships led by . Admiral Tryon ordered a manoeuvre that was to see each ship turn, one after the other in formation, to steam in the opposite direction. However, with the ships just 1,200 yards apart, and an estimated minimum turning circle of at least , Victoria, the first ship to turn, was struck by the armoured ram of Camperdown as it turned, causing massive damage to the flagship. Victoria sank in approximately 15 minutes, with 358 members of the crew, including Admiral Tryon, lost.

Wreck site

After a search that lasted ten years, the wreck was discovered on 22 August 2004 in of water by the Lebanese-Austrian diver Christian Francis, aided by the British diver Mark Ellyatt. She stands vertically with the bow and some of her length buried in the mud, with the stern pointing directly upwards towards the surface. This position is not unique among shipwrecks as first thought, as the Russian monitor also 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-turning propellers driving the wreck downwards.

References

Bibliography

  • 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.
  • Richard Hough, Admirals in Collision, Hamish Hamilton, London. Copyright 1959.
  • Louis Decimus Rubin, The Summer the Archduke Died: Essays on Wars and Warriors, University of Missouri Press, [2008],
  • 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 ship Hibernia at 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 ship Victoria , Her Majesty's Stationery Office, printed by Darling & son Ltd, 1893.
  • Victoria memorial in Portsmouth
  • Lebanon Daily Star article on the discovery of the wreck
  • HMS Victoria on the wrecksite, including video and position
  • Poem by William McGonagall commemorating the loss of the Victoria
  • Roll of Honour