The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-24

board the ship. It was feared that of
this total of us souls 4SO had been lost.
In the House Of Lords Earl Spencer,
first lord of the admiralty, referred to the
disaster in terms similar to those en-
ployed by Mr. Gladstone in the House of
Commons.
THE MOMENT OF CONTACT.
London, June "a, 2 a. ma dispatch
received at 2 o'clock thfs morning from
Beyroot says that the collision occurred at
O'Clock yesterday afternoon about z
miles from Tripoi, The vessels were
almost at right angles when the Victoria
was struck.
Those on the Victoria's deck at the mo-
ment of the collision scrambled away
and were rescued by boats from the
Camperdown and several other vessels.
The men below had no time to reach the
deck. The sudden heeling of the Victo-
ria caused her to begin to fill Immediately
No escape was possible. She went down
in so fathoms of water.
1t is difficult to secure the names of the
rescued, as they are aboard of several
vessels, and so far all efforts have been
devoted to recovering bodies.
Shortly after the collision 3 bodies
were taken from the water, one of them
the body of the chief pay-master. They
were buried last evening with military
honors at Tripoi.
The Camperdown was severely dam
aged forward in the collision Tempo
rary repairs will be made and she will
start home. 1t is said that several times
the Victoria had shown signs of weakness
in her steering gear. One theory is that
on account of this weakness she became
unmanageable and could not be got out of
the Camperdown's way.
CUT THROUGH HER PLATES.
Lord George Hamilton, first lord of the
Admiralty in Lord Salisbury's cabinet,
said today in an interview that without
doubt the Camperdowns ram had cut
away the plating ON the Victoria outside
of several of her transverse bulkheads.
Had this not been the case, the bulk
heads could have been closed and the
water kept in one, or, at
most, two compartments, and the
vessel would still have float
ed, but with the plating torn
off or cut away outside of several of the
bulkheads the inflow of water would
have been enormous and there would have
been no time, even if it would have availed
anything to close the bulkheads.
Arthur Cover Forwood, ships owner
and formerly secetary to the admiralty
said the Victoria had Longitudinal bulk
head running through her, besides a num-
Der running across ship, she was thus
divided into compartments or each side of
the Longitudinal bulkhead without commu-
nication between them.
HOW 1T OCCURRED.
In his opinion what had occurred was
this: The Camper down had struck the
Victoria a scraping blow glancing along
her side and opening out the plates above
several of the compartments. Water was
then admitted to number of compart-
ments on one side of the ship, causing
her to capsize by its great weight. The
Victoria was single turret ship carrying
two 10 ton guns mounted in the forward
turret coated with eighteen inches of
compound armor; one ten inch, 20 ton
gun firing apt and a broadside auxiliary
armament of IL six inch five ton guns.
OF artillery of a smaller nature she car
ried 81 quick firing and eight machine
guns. Her maximum speed was 1878
knots. She could stow 1900 tons of coal
in her bunl1ers and her radius of action at
10 knots speed with her full compliment
of coal was estimated at good knots, Her
armored belt and bulk heads consisted of
compound armor from 10 to is inches in
thickness. See was built at Elswick
In January of last year; the Victoria ran
aground off the Greek Coast near Platea
and she was only 1oated off after an i'm
mense amount of labor and large ex-
pense. 1t was said that this accident was
due to carelessness, and her commander,
Cap. Maurice Bourke was severely repre-
manded by court Martial. Capt. Bourke
was in command when sunk.