The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-27
SINKING OF THE VICTORIA.
A Version Which Puts the Blame on
Admiral Manning.

d1s Delay taCaL, as the Victoria Had
Already obeyed-The Collision Might
Have Occurred Even IL He Had Exc
outed the Order at Once.
New York June 26-The Evening
! World published an extra this evening In
which was the following special cable
dispatch from Tripoi, Sigma, regarding
the sinking Of the battle ship Victoria:
| about O'Clock last Thursday afternoon
the English feet came in sight of Elmina
port, and town of Tripoli, making direct
| ly for the harbor Five big iron-clads--
the Victoria, Camperdown, Edinburgh,
Nile and Sans Pareil were drawn up IN
full front. The Victoria was in the
center, The Camperdown was on her left
and the Edinburgh on her right. When
| they were within five miles of shore Vice
Admiral Sir George Tryon signal
ed to them to turn and form in
double line This meant that the Victoria
and Camperdown were to go ahead lit
! tie and describe turn, the Victoria turn
! ing to the left and the Camperdown turn
| ing to the right, then they would advance
side by side in the direction from which
they had come. The others would swing
into double column order and ad-
! When the order was given the distance
| between the ships was less than cable
lengthts
IN TOO CLOSE QUARTERS.
''The execution of the order was easy
enough for the ships further away from
the center, but extremely difficult for the
| Victoria and Camperdown, who, in turn
! ing their bows, would pass within n few
| fathOms of each other, even if the move
ment was executed with the greatest pre-
cision. Whether because Admiral Mark
ham of the Camperdown could not believe
| this movement was to be tried
when the ships were so close
together or because he thought
| Admiral Tryon had misoalculated the
distance, he did not set about executing
Admiral Tryon's order, but signalled that
he did not understand it. The Victoria
and other vessels had not hesitated and
the Victoria began to turn at once as she
still held to the signal The Camperdown
no longer hesitated, but also began to
! turn. The brief delay, however, had
| been fatal. The Victoria had nearly turned
and the Camperdown swinging around
| bore down upon her,
| Both her admirals were quick to act
| Admiral Tryon swung the Victoria so as
| to receive at the smallest angle the blow
which both officials saw was inevitable
and admiral Markham did the same for
| VIC N)hi4 pNANOWAlS bFoAANH IINAAHAiE AitI
screws
THE CRASH.
The twelve foot ram of the Camperdown
struck the hull of the Victoria just in
front of her armored bulkhead and
plunged into the thin plates Of
starboard side. The
armOr ends of the bulkhead and the for
ward part of the Victoria above the water
! line were mere card board to the great
iron wedge so nightly propelled. There
was smashing of wood and the iron
plates and the ram and eight feet of the
bow of the Camperdown crashed twenty
feet into the bowels of the Victoria. The
Camperdown was halted by the heavy
armor of the Victoria, and as
her screws were reversed she
at once began to back away.
CAS- all the other vessels were moving
| together in double line behind the two
leaders they were bearing down upon the
entangled ships and catastrophe involv-
! ing all the iron clads was imminent. Only
the GOODNESS and prompt action of the
other commanders prevented a general
| disaster,
THE PLUNGE TO THE BOTTOM
''The Victoria was at once headed for
shore and steamed ten minutes,
the discipline mean while being
perfect Suddenly the Victoria leaned
| to starboard and with
great roll and plunge buried her bow in
the sea- Her engines continued working
and the screws whirled in the air as tho
vessel gradually sunk. The suction of
the vessel was drawing everything in
whirlpool and when the screws became
submerged they created a great vortex,
into which men were drawn, In plain
sight of the other vessels and dismem-
bered by the revolving blades
| of the screws The heads, limbs and
trunks Of human bodies were thrown out
of the deep cone Of water and fell back
and disappeared The horror of this
scene turned sick all who beheld ii and
the men in the water in danger of this
new death lost their presence ofmind and
good swimmers ceased to swim. Scarcely
had the vessel settled so low that the
vortex closed up when the boilers burst,
and those who had escaped the chopping
knives were beating waves Of scalding
water.
PICKING UP THE SURVIVORS.
With thefirst under-plunge Of the Vic
toria all the boats were called away from
all the other ships and came stFaining
over the calm sea to save the strugglers.
These boats were soon picking up the for
tunate ones who had got out of reach of
the terrible vortex So long as the vor-
tex was there the boats dared not ven
ture near, but they did lift from
the scalding water several wretched
sailors who were horribly burned. 1t is
thought that more than half of those
drowned got out of the ship but were
caught in the vortex or scalded to death
Admiral TryOn stuck on the bridge and
refused to leave it, Just before the Vic
toria made her under plunge he
saw what was about to happen
and issued an order for each man
to save himself, but the order never got
beyond the bridge, for ruin descended
straightway. The peril of those in the
water was increased by the fact that the
sea hereabouts is infested with sharks.
1T is the duty of the marines when a col
lision occurs TO Immediately 90 below and
close all the water tight compartments.
When the CamperdOwn struck the Veto
ria, the Victoria S marines went below for
their duty and as a result, out Of l20
marines on the Victoria, 80 were lost.
Rear-Admiral Markham Must Answer
for the Collision.
London, July 26.-It has been definitely
decided that Rear-Admiral Albert II.
NTaplrhor47 tvbo was aacOud in command