HMS Triumph (1903)
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HMS Triumph was a ship of the line of the Swiftsure class ordered by Chile in 1902 . The ship was launched on January 12, 1903 as a Libertad at Vickers in Barrow-in-Furness . The Royal Navy acquired it on December 3, 1903, to prevent it from being sold to Russia in particular , and renamed it Triumph . In June 1904 the Triumph came into service. From 1913 she was assigned to the China Station , but was only in reserve with a hull crew in Hong Kong . In 1914 she was involved in the siege and conquest of the German colony in Tsingtau (China). Then she took part in the fight against the Ottoman Empire . During the Battle of Gallipoli , she was sunk on May 25, 1915 near Gaba Tepe by the German submarine U 21 with a torpedo.
Building history
The then increasing tensions between Chile and Argentina led, after consulting Sir Edward Reed, the Admiralty's chief designer , in 1902 to order two fast, heavily armed ships of the line with a relatively low displacement from the British shipyards of Armstrong Whitworth in Elswick and Vickers in Barrow-in -Furness . Thanks to British mediation, the conflict was settled in the course of 1902. While Argentina gave up its construction plans and sold the armored cruisers under construction in Italy to Japan, Chile initially stuck to its project, writing the ships under construction due to financial problems at the beginning of 1903 but then also for sale. Great Britain acquired the unfinished ships on December 3, 1903 for £ 2,432,000. Although designed for Chilean requirements, only a few modifications were made to the ships, which were completed in June 1904 and adopted by the Royal Navy as Swiftsure (originally Constitución ) and Triumph (ex Libertad ).
Mission history
The Triumph was still launched as a Libertad at Vickers in Barrow-in-Furness . On June 21, 1904, she was commissioned in Chatham (Kent) for the British Home Fleet .
Pre-war missions
On September 17, 1904, the Triumph was slightly damaged when she was rammed by the steamer Siren in Pembroke Dock , Wales . With the new fleet organization of January 1905, the Home Fleet became the Channel Fleet and the Triumph was now a unit of the Canal Fleet. On June 3, 1905, she was damaged in a slight collision with her sister ship Swiftsure serving in the same unit . The necessary repairs to the bow were carried out in Chatham by the end of July 1905.
On October 7, 1908, the crew of the Triumph was reduced and the ship was assigned to the active reserve in Portsmouth . Already in October 1908 she moved to Chatham, where she was overhauled in the local naval shipyard . On April 6, 1909, she was put back into service for the British Mediterranean Fleet . As a result of the renewed reorganization of the fleet in May 1912 with the abandonment of liners in the Mediterranean fleet, the Triumph was transferred to the Third Fleet (the reserve fleet) of the Home Fleet and only kept in reserve with a hull crew in Portsmouth. On August 28, 1913, the Triumph's crew was replenished in Devonport for service at the China Station . Like her sister ship Swiftsure on the East Indies Station , the liners were supposed to be a representative flagship on stations otherwise only manned by cruisers. Shortly after arriving in Hong Kong , the Triumph reduced its crew to a small tribe and gave the greater part to other ships at the China Station.
Use in the First World War
When the world war broke out in August 1914, the Triumph was reactivated in Hong Kong. Their crew was replenished by reservists, but above all by the crews of laid-up gunboats and 108 men of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry . On August 6, 1914, the liner was ready for use. The Triumph took part in the British operations against the German East Asia Squadron under Graf Spee in August 1914, which were intended to give the impression through intensive radio that the ships of the China Station were all assembled in front of Tsingtau . In fact, the Triumph only marched there with smaller units, while the station's more modern cruisers under the flagship Minotaur ran into the Pacific to find the German cruiser squadron under Graf Spee . The Triumph Pirated on the march to Qingdao the German coal freighter Frisia (Hapag, 5001 BRT), which as Huntress came into British service. From August 23, 1914, she was involved with the 2nd Japanese Fleet in the capture of the German base in Tsingtau, which surrendered on November 7, 1914. After Tsingtau was occupied by the Japanese, the Triumph returned to Hong Kong, where it was overtaken.
After the overhaul, the Triumph left Hong Kong on January 12, 1915 and reached its new area of operation on February 7, 1915 in Suez , from where it should move on to the Dardanelles . On February 18 and 19, 1915, she took part in the first attacks on the forts at the entrance to the strait. On February 25, they attacked again with Albion and Cornwallis and were able to put Fort Sedd el Bahr out of action with their medium artillery battery . The next day she was one of the first Allied ships of the line, the Albion and the Majestic , to enter the Dardanelles to also put the inner forts out of action. After an operation against Fort Dardanos on March 2, she was sent with her sister ship Swiftsure, which had also arrived in the meantime , to an attack on the forts near Smyrna from March 5 to 9 , since the Allies were considering conquering the port city and using it as a base use.
The Triumph took part in the big, failed breakthrough attempt on March 18, 1915 and on April 15, it first fired at positions of the Turkish army on the Gallipoli peninsula near Achi Baba . On April 25, 1915, she supported the ANZAC troops on their landing near Gaba Tepe , where they regularly gave artillery support in the following period.
Sinking
On May 25, 1915, the ship was again in front of Gaba Tepe and shelled Ottoman positions. It was at the combat station with the bulkheads closed and the torpedo nets deployed. At about 12.30 p.m., a periscope was discovered on starboard at a distance of approx. 400 m from the lookout . This was one of the under the command of Lieutenant Otto Hersing straight Cattaro arrived U 21 . Fire was immediately opened on the submarine. However, U 21 had already fired a torpedo that could easily cut through the nets. After the explosion, the Triumph was immediately listed 10 degrees to starboard. After five minutes the heel increased to 30 degrees. Another ten minutes later the ship capsized and remained keeled up for another 30 minutes before it sank in the 50 m deep water. The destroyer Chelmer was able to save a large part of the crew before; three officers and 75 sailors died.
literature
- Burt, RA: British Battleships 1889-1904 . Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1988. ISBN 0-87021-061-0 .
- Chesneau, Roger, and Eugene M. Kolesnik (Editors): Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905 . New York: Mayflower Books, Inc., 1979. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4 .
- Gibbons, Tony: The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships and Battlecruisers: A Technical Directory of All the World's Capital Ships From 1860 to the Present Day . London: Salamander Books Ltd., 1983.
- Gardiner, Robert (Ed.): Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905 . Mayflower Books, New York 1979, ISBN 0-8317-0302-4 .
- Dittmar, FJ & J J. Colledge. British Warships 1914-1919 . London: Ian Allen, 1972. ISBN 0-7110-0380-7 .
- Gray, Randal, Ed. Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1985. ISBN 0-87021-907-3 .
- Pears, Randolph. British Battleships 1892–1957: The Great Days of the Fleets . G. Cave Associates, 1979. ISBN 978-0-906223-14-7
