Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Saturday 24 June 1893, page 9


OFFICIAL STATEMENT.

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY OF

THE CREW SAVED.

THE CAMPERDOWN SERIOUSLY

INJURED

1.5 p.m.

It is officially announced that the Victoria was sunk off Tripoli yesterday afternoon while going through a course

of naval manœuvres.

Two hundred und fifty of the crew wore

saved.

The Camperdown was seriously in-jured by the collision.

Later.

The Victoria was struck by the Cam-perdown forward of the starboard turret, and in 15 minutes sank in 80 fathoms of water, going down bottom uppermost.

Among thoso who wore drowned

were

Vice-Admiral Tryon.

Henry R. Allon, ono of the clerks to the secretary.

Lieutenant Philip H. Munro.

The Rev. Samuel S. O. Morris, M.A., chaplain.

Felix Foreman, fleet engineer.

Frederick G. Harding, engineer.

Henry C. Deadman, assistant engi-

neer.

William R. Seaton, assistant engineer. William E. Hatherly, assistant engi-

neer.

Gunnor William Howell. And six midshipmen.

2.45 p.m.

Tho total number on board the Victoria was 660. Of these 255 were saved, and the rest, 405 in all, were drowned. The following were drowned :

William Barnard, boatswain. Philip H. Beall, carpenter.

Leslie Inglis, Arthur C. Grieve, Ayscough G. H. Fawkes, Herbert N. Lanyon, Walter E. Henley, Harold W. Gambier, Lawrence J. P. Scarlett, mid-shipmen.

Fraser S. Stooks, naval cadet.

Arthur D. Savage, assistant clerk.

Valantine D. J. Rickcord, fleet pay-

master.

The names of those who have been saved have not as yet been received in London.

All those saved have been sent on to

Malta.

BUILD AND ARMAMENT OF

THE VICTORIA.

Brassey's Naval Annual contains the fol-lowing details of the construction and arma ment of the battle ship Victoria, reprinted from the account in The Times of June 16, 1888, of her steam trial :—

"'The powerful turretship Victoria, so named in honour of Her Majesty s jubilee, completed her steam trials at the Nore on Thuraday. lhe first rivet was driven in her keel plate by Lord Armstrong at Ulswiok in June, 1885 und she »os launched on the 9th of April last j ear In respect to the essential, of speed, protection, and armament, the Victoria is without a competitor in the navies ol Lurope In design she may be said to resemble a magnified Hero and though ex coption has been taken to the curtailment of lier armour belt, which extends forlG2ft

over her total length of 3-JOtt» and to the allegod dangerous concentration of her heaviest guns in a single turret, it must not be forgotten that naval construe tion is only possible on the principio of compromiso, and that it is more satisfac tory to judge of the ethciency of a battle ship by the balance of advantages she _,uins by sacrificing something in her design Compaung the Victoria with the crack French armour elad Amiral liaudin we find that the latter possesses a complete belt at tho water line of the uniform thickness of 21_in , while the Lnglish ship is only par tially protected by a heit varying in thiok ness from linn to 18m and that whereas the 1 rcnalunan carries three heavy guns in as mun barhettts the 1 nghsh visscl has her two 110 ton L,ui)B boxed up in a single turret But, on the other hand, while the redoubt and turret of the Victoria are built up of armour lSin thiok, the barbettes of the Amiral Baudin are ot the thickness of lOJin 'lhe former ia also more powerfully armed and englned, has a wider area of action, and ia superior in speed in the ratio of 17 knot« to l8 knote under

forced draught And all these advantages shecarnes into action upon mround numbers, 1,000 tons less displacement, besides being protected against a rakmpc fire by a bulkhead Ibm thick and an angular screen of 6in plating Had it been determined to ton tmue the Victorias belt throughout the sides upon the same displacement it would have been necessary to reduce the armour from a uniform thickness of lSm to lim. and 12in, or, on the other hand had the bolt been continued to the ends without thinning it in the mlddli and making it 12m at the extremities the displacement of the ship must havo been increased to 11,000 tons As she now exists the estimated loss o£ buoyancy by the complete riddling of the unarmoured ends amounts to 41 tons repre senting a total sinkngc of 2in

" Her armament will consist of two 110 ton breechloaders, which discharge projectiles of 1,8001b with maximum charges of 0001b, each gun being capable of firing ahead, and also in consequence of the conformation of the superstructure, on the Bide within nn arc of löOdeg , one SO ton gun firing astern and on either quarter , tweHe Gin 5 ton guns, tviehe 0 pounder and nine % pounder quick firing guns, besides machine guns for smaller ammunition In other words the Victoria will be able to discharge from the broadside 4 7501b of mrtal simultaneously, con-suming 3 0001b of powder She is also fitted with eight torpedo dischargers This stupendous fighting machine will havo a com-plement of 550 ofheers and men, of whom 110 will bo engineers, stol ers, and other non combatants According to the na.ol esti-mates for the current j car, the total cost of the Victoria including hull, machiner}, and guns, is £844,022 The Victoria has been supplied with twin screw triple expansion engines bj Messrs. Humphr}8 lennant and Co, of Deptford. 1 - he oj linders are 13m , 62m, and 96in in

diameter re3pecti\ ely, with a stroke of 4ft. -in The contract powcriB 12 000 horse power with forced draught and enclosed stokeholds, and 7 500 horso power with open stoke-holds 'Ihej are by far the largest tripleexpansion engines jet supplied to the navy, und are practically identical m design with the engines ol the sumo power which are now being fitted by Messrs Humphrjs and Tennant to lier Majesty s ship Sans Pareil, sister ship to the Victoria, built by the J liâmes Ironworks Blackwall bteam is supplied at a w orking pressure of lSjlb. by eight four furnaeo boilers constructed entirely of steel, and disposed in four siparateand independent stokeholds . 1 he means of the observations taken dunne the four horns steaming ¡,ave au indicated power of 14,244.54 horses. The speed of the ship was over 17¼ knots, the entire series of results being obtained at an expenditure of 2lb. of coal for every indicated horse power an hour.

DESCRIPTION OF THE CAMPER-

DOWN.

The Camperdown is a first class armoured screw battle-ship of 10,600 tons and 11,500- horse power. She was built at Portsmouth in 1885, is 330ft. in length and 68ft 6in. extreme breadth. Her armament comprised four 68-ton guns and six 6in. breechloading rifle guns and she carries also 19 quick-firing and seven machine guns. Her deadweight, when launched, was 5,000 tons

CAREER OF ADMIRAL TRYON.

The following account of the career of the deceased admiral is taken from Mennell's Dictionary of Australasian Biography -

Vice Admiral Sir George Tryon, K.C.B., formerly commander-in-chief on the Aus- tralian station is the son of the late T. Tryon, of Bulwick-park in Northampton- shire, and was born in 1832. He entered the Ho. al Navy in 1818, became commander in 1860, captain in 1866, rear admiral in 1884, and vice admiral in 1889. He served with the Naval Brigade before Sebastopol in 1854 and 1855, for which he received a medal with two clasps, the 3rd class Medjidie, and the Turkish medal He was director of trans-ports during the Abyssinian war of 1868, and received a medal and special mention in despatches. Admiral Tryon was private secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty from 1871 to 1874, British Commissioner at Sfaxenguin m 1881, permanent secretary to the Admiralty in 1883 and 1884, a naval aide-de-camp to Her Majesty from 1879 to 1884, and commander in chief on the Australian station from 1884 to 1887. In the latter capacity he conferred with the Australian Premiers on the subject of colonial naval defence, and was largely the originator of the plan discussed and adopted at the Colonial Conference held in London in 1887, and subsequently approved by the colonial Legislatures, under which the home Government agreed to provide, and the former to subsidise, a special Australasian

squadron. In 1887 Admiral Tryon unsuccess-fully contested the Spalding Division of Lincolnshire in the Conservative interest, and in the next year was appointed admiral, superintendent of Naval Reserves. In 1889 and 1890 he commanded one of the fleets engaged in the autumn manœuvres. Admiral Tryon, who was created C. B. in 1868, and K.C.B. in 1887, married, in 1869, the Hon. Clementina Charlotte Heathcote, daughter of

the first Lord Aveland.