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HMS Triumph Battleship Wreck
HMS Triumph was a Swiftsure class English warship. She has been completed in 15th of January 1903 by
Vickers, Barrow.
She has been comissioned in the channel fleet until she has been sent to mediterennan in March 1909.
After the World War I broke out, she has been used in operations against Tsing Tao who were supported
by Japaneese Ships. In January 1915, she came to Canakkale in order to take part in the bombing of the
Canakkale castles. She has been torpedoed and sunked by the German submarine U-21 in 18th of May 1915
while she was bombing Gaba Tepe. She sunked in one and a half hour taking 73 of the crew with her.
Size: 146m * 22m * 7.6m
Guns: 4 10” twin guns
14 7,5” guns
14 14pdr guns
2 2pdr guns
4 maxims
2 torpedo tubes
Weight: 11,800 tons
Crew: 700
Speed: 20 knots
Propulsion: Water tube boilers, 2 shafts, 14,000 ihp
Sinking of The Ship:
The captain of the German u-21 submarine Captain Hersing, the English navy's headache, hitted his punch
right in the middle of the day. English Navy's Triumph ship was anchored in front of Gabatepe. She had
layed torpedo nets around her. A destroyer was making circles around her to protect her. The submarine
was noticed and the destroyer started following the submarine. During the hours taking following,
the German submarine were forced to dive more than 20 meters for a few times. At 11:23, the submarine
was become ready to fire her torpedoes. Captain Hersing waited patiently. He was now 300 meters away
from the battleship. From this distance she fired her front torpedo with the net cutters and dived to 21
meters instantly. While diving they heard a sound of a metal colliding to another metal then a huge explotion...
But the destroyers protecting Tirumph, had noticed the place of the U-21 submarine. There was no way out
to the Aegean for U-21. Captain Hersing had to make a very hard decision. He decided to go right under the
sinking Triumph and he managed to escape.
Captain Otto Hersing
There was a real chaos going over the sea. Destroyer, fisher boats were all going to Triumph in order to help
here while the other big ships who didn't want to be the next target of the U-21 was trying to get away from
the Triumph. The deck of the Triumph was like hell, screams, shoutings, lifeboats being put on sea, stuffs
being thrown to the sea. Although she was in such a condition, they managed to fire two shots to the way the torpedo
camed. One of the shots hitted to a steamer. And after sometime, Triumph suddenly lyed to her side 45 degrees
and stayed on the water like this for 8 minutes. All of the crew were dropped to the sea. Just at that time,
she turned upside down showed her bottom in the glowing sun for a while... After a few minutes
her stern rise over the water... While 133 meters long and 12000 tons weighted steel was making her
last dive to the cold waters of Canakkale giving out steam and smoke, the crews of the surrounding ships were saluting the Triumph ...
This whole events have been happened right in front of the two armies fighting on the land.
While the Anzac soldiers were watching this view sadly, there were laughter and applauss sounds
coming from the Turkish soldiers. But Turks were showing that they were not vindictive people...
They did not fire one single shot to the Triumph, while she was shot, after she was shot and while she
was sinking and to the crew on the sea.
With Triumph 3 officers and 70 privates were dead. This event was meaning the end of the safety of
the allied ships around Gelibolu.
The Wrecks Condition:
She was now lying in 56 to 72 meters depth. This spot isn't suggested by the local dive centers because
the dive must be planned and done very professionally. The dive center can only
take you here by judging of your dive experience and an authorization from the Coast Guard.
The wreck which haven't been dived too often is always full of magnificent emotions with
big groupers and other fishes.
The wreck lyes on her side in 63 meters. All around the wreck there are fish nets,
so you have to be careful. It is possible to enter the wreck from one point.
The ship is still intact and in a good condition.
The passage below has been taken from the Captain Otto Hersing's log
Captain’s Log May 25th, 1915 Today at around 9 AM I have destroyed and sank the battleship HMS Triumph. It was dark and fairly cloudy. We could barely see them in the dark clouds surrounding the area. We were oxygenating the vessel in order for the diesel engines to function. After about an hour of being surfaced, a man noticed a Battleship approaching at a faster rate than us. They were gaining speed on us so he went inside the submarine and closed the hatch. I was in the bridge at the time and told the helmsman to dive. As we dived, I told him to turn around and head away from the Battleship from the side. We soon fired a torpedo but it missed. From the torpedo, they tracked down our location and went over us. They launched depth charges, which seriously damaged the vessel. We had to do an emergency surface because our diesel engines were out. We soon started our electrical engines and headed towards the HMS Triumph. They shelled us but luckily most of their bullets missed. We fired a torpedo and it was a direct hit. It was a glorious moment for my crew and I. The spirit at the moment was excellent and we felt like we could destroy a hundred of their battleships. The diesel engine was severely damaged but luckily our ingenious mechanics quickly repaired it within a day. We were lucky because we didn’t encounter any vessels while we were on the surface.
Photographs of Triumph from National Geographic
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