THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1960,
The impossible happened. The two flagships turned in on one another on a collision course
which could end only in disaster....
THE RANKS OF DEATH STOOD FIRM
MINUTES before the two mighty battleships crashed, the mean of the
Victoria braced themselves in horror and helplessness for the ` disaster.
An officer ordered the watertight doors to be closed and the collision mat brought out to staunch the flow of water through the hole still to be pierced by the Camperdown's ram.
Even in the face of disaster, the
men of the Royal Navy know that their duty is to obey the word of com- mand. Hundreds of bluejackets stood
blared. There standstill and the Camperdown't their ankles, then their leg and in disciplined ranks awaiting the order forepart of the Vicforta, Alling through the swirling water and to jump, the order which most knew
A bugle were skouts and cries from bow was locked deep into
the one by one they retreated
the men running on the the wound she had inflicted as left the unrolled mat awash
deck below, But in the chart house the state of numbed paralysis persisted. And then suddenly, Vice-Ad- mntral Sir George Tryon, 10. cognising that this was to be no glancing blow, paced across the deck and shouted through cupped honda: "Go astern-go astern."
It was the only pathetic and futile order Sir George Tryon ever gave.
But the Camperdown bore down on the flagship, her fog- horn blaring a continuous wail.
Costnet between the ram of the Camperdown and the stur board ride of the Victoria was made at 3.34 precisely. At the suced he was travelling st-six knots the blow was equol 10 the Impact of a blank shell from one of her 13.5 inch guns, fired ut the sume range.
Tremor
neatly as a spear in flesh,
The sea surged in through would be the last they would ever hear.
aperture
on dock open to cool the
of the ship
on
vroman passed
10 Sir every George Tryon a delayed sema- - left
from
the interior phore just received Camperdown in answer to the that burning afternoon. It even Into the huge Hogship's demand to know why began pouring she had delayed making her 10.25-inch gun turret and soon furt,
her bows were far out of night beneath the sea, and the turret was like a circular faland.
The signal rend: "Because cd not quite understand your signal."
Tryon grabbed a haller and called to Markham standing on the forebridge with his officers 50 yards away. "Go astern. Go artern with both engines. Why didn' you-?"
Admirals In Collision
By RICHARD HOUGH
Part Three —
precise moment.
The ship slowly healed to 20 degrees. Her appearance was Jucks spinning an outsize river Victorin had gone down at that
and so frighteningly log. grotesque
that even Tryon re- unnatural cognised that the Victoria's end was near.
Going
Bul although Rear-Admiral Markham, did not leur the "I think she's going," said the Commander-in-Chier, he antici- Stoff-Commander. Tryon hen other ships to send Fated the demand and with a ordered teattel grinding of steel agulost boats.
slowly a vel, the Camperdown
cd away out of the tricegular cavity which had been torn even wider us the sterns of the two battleships tended to swing to- gether.
Within two minutes she was bardened free and like a torrent over U The Camperdown's
the steel ram had been built on to wreckage of a burst dam, her stem for the spedite pur- water began to roar and foum pose of sinking ships in Close in at a rate of hundreds of tons combat, and it carried out its a minute. At once the Victoria function for the first and fast settled forward and heeled the with devastating efelency. slowly to starboard
The sallors of the Victoria suddenly saw the shattered stem of the Camperdown tearing and roaring into their midst flanked by the raw. splatered steel- work of the ship's plates.
$s no
Struggle
But there was no order 10 the men on watch below in the baller rooms and the engine rcoms to leave their posts. They were still there when the ship capsized. Not one of them Was saved.
was last
Tryon remained on top of the chart-house to the last. He was carried down with the ship. He made no attempt to save him- seen, in self. Ho accordance with tradition, hands on the rail, awaiting inc end; and he made no remark revealed his that might have
during those final
seconds.
Men were already dying, ship went minutes before the down, some drowned in the food or were bowled over and atunned in Ita rush, or most terribly of all, trapped behind feelings doors, feverishly bolled and clipped home by their ship- matc One man who thought he was done for when the turret escape hatch was slam- med on him, beat it with such force with his Asts that it was opened again to let him through.
his
"He was perfectly calm and collected to the last
... He died as he ilved, a brave man." wrote an olker who was with him to the last,
Standing around the stricken flagship were the remnants of
on the chaos
frightfi
more
of
and
A young lieutenant was now the two divisions in a state Calling in the men quarterdeck, Six hundred of humiliating than the proud
standing in Ines MesBlerranean them, were Tryon decided to try bench his four deep facing inwards with known. stricken
and angry their backs to the ship's side as ordered the Dreadnought nearby if on parade. to stop sending boots. There was no question of
- Elsewhere the impact was felt
the more than a sudden
ship fremor but it travelled like an going down. She was one of earthquake's shock wave all the newest, nest and most over the ship,
heavily protected Ironelads in the Royal Navy.
Jater
John
Commander
Jellicoe, to make his
narne in World War as Britain's fore most Admiral, saw the wall of 3113 sickbay enbin suddenly wrenched out of position.
Up on the churt house, the officers und men ducked to avold, the dying fragments of steel and wood and Ironwork. When they got up, their ship was at a
Then there was the tnost famous story of all, the story of Tryon's reception, TC- Lucky pealed all over the country at the time and still told in naval circles today.
..
The London season was at its height and Lady Tryon was at home" to some 200 people at her Eaton Square house. A number of guests as they were received
how remarked to their hotess pleasant li was for her to have her husband home again so soon.
"But he is
in the Mediterranean," Lady Tryon told them at first in surprise uczation and later in some But many people had seen Sir George, quic distinctly, com ing down the stairs to welcome them, and some cuen claimed to have prected kim.
fleet bad ever
Next Saturday:
The Court Martial
Last lurch
They were given the order
The to right about face." discipline was superb. Every
Her last lurch, her sudden and nan present, swimmers non-swimmers alike, knew that capsizing, were so violent that rather ns an within seconds they would be her end came
AS the usual cast into the sea, but not one of explosion than
of a turquient disappearance them breke ranks exceul two
The air from her siniting ship. interior had no time to escape forth from her bowels, throwing up the lashed gunnery targe and other remaining objects on hur upper decks and a great mass of material from below.
Belou
the chart house an ofeer and a party of men were
the large Malteze burnbostmen, whose struggling to
as she went the fore denly threw thmselves over the collision mat on lo castle and over the side to rall with a cry. staunch the flow of water. It was a heavy, awkward piece of equipment but as they swore, stumbled and fought to heave it over the twelve-foot gash, the. water began lapping around
A British Crossword Puzzle
+2
13
4
to
13
114
115
17
18
20
[2]
122
23
24
26
27
28
129
30
ACROSS
1 Load-for three dogs? (5).
4 It receives burnt remains (6).
8 Garibaldi's licentious
(0).
port
10 À Caledonian of coursei (6),
12 It's in Portugal. but
its
money is good in France (0).
14 Gardeners make heaps of It
(7).
17 Quick in delivery! (4).
18 The threats of male stora,
apparently (7).
20 Schoolmaster (7),
22 Dal? (4).
23 Lays it on thick, maybe (7).
27 Duhovel (0).
29 Future indicators?
(0).
30 Liquit covering (0).
31 Stepped out vigorously bor
finished on horseback! (0).
32 Very poorly? (5).
to,
32
DOWN
Cyril's contributien to the theatre (8),
2 Superior sort of scrap-book?
(6).
3 ito, there (6).
5 Picce of cake? (4).
Make a nical off grass, as it were (6).
7 "Tia chout the taxes (0),
The last word on parade (7).
11 So to put
brandy in the
coffee should give comfort (0).
13 Jacic's the boy for this (7).
10 Wind instrument (4):
10 Not made by stone
we're told (0).
walls,
18 Dispose of five before the
finlah (4)
20 Slavers (8).
21 Remote, perhaps, in outer
space (◊).
24 They may be repaired or
pald (5).
25 Kad in mal to get help
around me (5).
20 Does she always go forth?
(B).
28 Accustomed (4),
YESTERDAY'S CROSSWORD—Acrom: 3 Spalpeen, B Al- Ilovering, 11 Consoles, 19 Lett, 16 Stooping, 18 Sneaking, 28 Tied, 27 Cano-mate.
19 B-row, 21 Altitude, 26 8-latter-N.
Down: 1 Tale, 2 Elon(note), Pool, & Leen, d Eille, 7 Night, Hoops, 10 Verne, 12 Otter, 14 Fined, 10 Ingle, 17 Gain(); 19 Basic, 20 Opals, 21 A-tom, 22 Trot, 29 Unit, 24 Enda.
Above the light, silent crowd, a man was calling oai: "Steady, men, steady." He was the Rev. Samuel Morris, ship's chaplain, who Heven at the moment of capsizing
RELAN
down and burst
In the water, many who bud careless of his survived the plunge into
the own safety and exhorted the
sea, who had escaped the deadly men to be cool."
wnir of the propellers and who Then came the last lurch and had been able to cling to float- were the lieutenant called "Jump, ted as wreckage
ing spars end wreckage,
Irom the jump."
plunging ship shot up to the surface with tremendous force.
AL the order. The thick disciplined ranks broke like o flock of roosting birds at a gun-
One of the first rescue boats shot. Many unable to swim or was nearly stove In by the alarmed at the distance to the Victoria's main derrick, sea, held back. Others crawled fest long and weighing several down the stern only to be out tons, which shot out of the ocean up by the Victoria's sill thresh-- like a frenzled serpent. ing propellers.
Others scrambled over the raits and along the vertical elde when she was at ninety degrees, and on to her bottom as the battleship capsized, like lumber
CHESS
by LEONARD BARDEN
Stere
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by
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London Azoren hercice
TARGET
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NTB
wurst of Foor tetters or safe
man
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each word. he lettere 2 Back of the quare, inay be used ance attly Earb ward stual con tain the large letter in the entre square, and there must be at feast.ona aino-letter word in the ise. No plurals no foreles words no proper TODAY'S TARGET: 64 words, good; 13 worán, very words, ernellent on Monday. :
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YESTERDAY'S SOLUTION Anti lo atone asinus cavity etty 1) egin CONCAVITY Coule youvirt ravin ergne erife Ten into lots, talu, tiny fante el vanay tler ปาน
London Express Servico,
fifty
Bui more deadly than either the screws or the debris was the
se circular wave that dragged
the men in the water down and tossed some of them up again, or threw them into the vortex about the descending hull of the battleship.
Gunner Frederick John Joling- ton was sucked down' a gren: distance, and on reaching the surface I could really count between thirty and forty henda round me." Twice more he went down under the wave “and on coming to the surface 1 struck my head against some wreckage." When he looked about him again "there were only three or four people,"
Its legends
of
as
For a time the condition the Camperdown looked serious as that of the flagship shortly before she had gone down. The sea was over her bow. Markham was certain she was going to follow the Victoria; to the botlem. But after some ninety minutes of hard pump ing, divers were able to get
vital down to the
half-closed bulkhead door to secure 11 and when she finally left for her anchorage she looked a piticul sight as she led the Mediter ranean Fleet In towards Tripoli int quarter speed.
Vietorla The sinking of the resulted in the loss of 350 officers and men and as a Now York reporter commented; "There must be more than one on the Camperdown who is tempted to regret that he did |not go below on the Vietorio
yesterday,"
Like any great clarity the sinking
tho Victoria created
Its own legends.
At a naval officers' luncheon in England of the same day as the sinking, a wine glasa mul denly broke at the stem of ita own accord.
That should mean Q bid naval disaster,"
thu one of offleurs remarked lightly; arid it they was not until later that recalled Independently that the
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made their escape In spite of the danger from the screws, many men
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