HMS Victoria (1887)

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, the

Captains and fleet commanders

Victoria was first commissioned in March 1890 by

On 29 January 1892, Victoria ran 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. Torpedoes would 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, and Victoria grounded on the rocky shoal at 9 kn (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 in Surprise, also ordering a dockyard tug Sampson with pumping equipment and hawsers. Hecla – a torpedo-depot ship – was already at Platea and made two attempts to tow Victoria free. These failed, but she assisted with laying anchors to hold the rear of the ship steady until further help could arrive. Phaeton, Edinburgh, Dreadnought, Scout and Humber were also called to the scene.^[7]

Victoria was lightened by removing 1,253 long tons (1,273 t), including 475 long tons (483 t) 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 Victoria'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

On 22 June 1893, Victoria was leading the Mediterranean Fleet's annual exercises in the Eastern 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 by HMS Camperdown. 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 of Camperdown as it turned, causing massive damage to the flagship. Victoria eventually 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 140 metres (460 ft) of water by the Lebanese-Austrian diver Christian Francis, aided by the British diver

Bibliography

• Chesneau, Roger; Koleśnik, Eugène M.; Campbell, N.J.M. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press.
  ISBN 0-85177-133-5
  .
• 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 HMS Victoria". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2020. Oxford, UK: Osprey. pp. 192–194.
  ISBN 978-1-4728-4071-4
  .
• Richard Hough, Admirals in Collision, Hamish Hamilton, London. Copyright 1959.
• ISBN 1-55750-075-4
  .
• Louis Decimus Rubin, The Summer the Archduke Died: Essays on Wars and Warriors, University of Missouri Press, [2008],
  ISBN 0-8262-1810-5
• 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 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.
• 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

• 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

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