Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1893 — FOUR HUNDRED LOST. [ARTICLE]

FOUR HUNDRED LOST.

The British Battleship Victoria Is Sunk Off Tripoli. A most terrible, calamity befell the great British twin screw battleship Victoria, flying the flag of Vice Admiral George C. Tryon, K. C. 8., commander of the Mediterranean station. She was sunk in eighteen fathoms of water off Tripoli Friday afternoon, and at least four hundred of her officers and crew went to the bottom with her. The disaster was due to the fearful bungling of either her own officers or those of the battleship Camperdown. In broad daylight, during a maneuver, she was run into head on by her companion ship, and in less than a quarter of an hour she had disappeared in the waves, carrying with her all on board. Twenty-one officers, including Vice Admiral Tryon, are reported drowned, and the great fighting ship lies a useless wreck, bottom side up, beneath the waves. The disaster is one of the most horrible, as well as one of the most disgraceful, that have ever befallen the English navy. The Victoria was a battleship of 10,470 tons and 14,000 horse-power and mounted fifty guns. The Camperdown is also of the Mediterranean fleet and is a slightly smaller boat than the Victoria. She is of 10,600 tons and 11,500 horse-power. Tripoli, near where the collision happened, is about seventy miles from Damascus. It has a small harbor,which is so shallow as to be notoriously unsafe. It is supposed that the Victoria found a lack of sea room in putting about as- the Camperdown came on, ana the latter boat hit the flagship squarely on the starboard side with her ram. The Camperdown was moving under a high steam pressure, and the effect was such as would have been made with an ax on a plank. The plates of the Victoria just forward of the turret were torn apart and a perfect flood poured into the hold of the flagship. She began to sink immediately. The engines of the Camperdown were reversed at once, but not before she had hit the Victoria a second time and completed the work of destruction. Every effort was made to save the ship, but the Victoria settled so fast that this was seen to be impossible, and the men, losing all discipline, cast loose the small boats and attempted to reach the Camperdown. Only three of the boats got free of the suction of the sinking ship. The rest were overturned and many of the occupants of these were drowned with the men who were cooped up in the battleship beyond all chance of rescue. Vice Admiral Tryon is said to be one of those who went down with the ship. The Victoria hardly moved forward after the blow. The water poured so rapidly into her engine-room that the fires were extinguished before the engineer had time to act. Some of the officers and crew managed to get out of the suction caused by the sinking vessel, and were rescued. Among those lost is Vice Admiral Tryon. The first reports of the disaster stated that about two hundred men had been drowned, but later dispatches show that the loss of life was far greater, not less than 400 of the officers and crew of the Victoria having gone down with their ship.