HMS Triumph (1903)
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HMS Triumph was a Swiftsure-class pre-Dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy. She had one sister ship, Swiftsure. The two ships had been built for the Chilean Navy, and Triumph was laid down as Libertad. They were bought by the Admiralty after fears that they would, upon delivery to the Chilean Navy, be sold to the Russian Navy. The class had a displacement of 11,900 tons, a length of 480 ft (146 m), and an armament of four 10 inch (250 mm) guns and fourteen 7.5 inch (190 mm) guns. Triumph was launched in 1903.
She was part of the Channel Fleet until being reallocated to the Mediterranean Fleet in early 1909. The outbreak of World War I led to Triumph being recommissioned and deployed to the Far East. She took part in operations off Tsingtao while attached to the Japanese Navy and captured the 4900-ton German civilian ship Frisia, which was subsequently renamed Huntress.
In early 1915 Triumph assisted in the bombardment of the Dardanelles in support of the landings at Gallipoli. On May 25, while bombarding Gaba Tepe, Triumph was torpedoed and sunk by U-21, which was the first submarine to torpedo and sink a surface ship (the Pathfinder in September 1914). The battleship began to list to port immediately and remained at 45 degrees for eight minutes in which time most of the crew were able to abandon ship. Of Triumph's 700 crew, 73 were lost. Another pre-dreadnought, Majestic, was sunk a few days later by the same U-Boat.
See HMS Triumph for other ships of this name.
HMS Triumph Statistics
- Displacement: 11,900 tons
- Length: 480 ft (146 m)
- Beam: 71 ft (22 m)
- Draught: 25 ft (7.6 m)
- Complement: 700
- Armament:
- 4 x 10 inch (250 mm) guns
- 14 x 7.5 inch (190 mm) guns
- 14 x 2-pounder guns
- 2 x 18 inch (460 mm) torpedo tubes
- Speed: 19 knots (35 km/h)
- Propulsion: Water tube boilers, 2 shafts, 14,000 ihp