page_title: HMS Vengeance (1899)
section_title: Dardanelles campaign
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Vengeance (1899) / Service history / World War I / Dardanelles campaign
caption_attribution_description: Map of the Dardanelles defences in February and March, 1915. The original lines of naval mines are numbered 1 to 10. The 11th line, laid in Erin Keui Bay by the minelayer Nusrat on 8 March, is numbered 11. The anti-submarine nets are shown as dotted lines. Major forts are indicated with blue boxes and the Turkish name and equivalent British number for the fort is given, if known. Based on a maps from: A Short Military History of World War I - Atlas, edited by T. Dodson Stamps and Vincent J. Esposito, 1950 Gallipoli: A Battlefield Guide, Phil Taylor &amp; Pam Cupper, 1989 Gallipoli, Les Carlyon, 2001.
context_page_description: HMS Vengeance was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy and a member of the Canopus class. Intended for service in Asia, Vengeance and her sister ships were smaller and faster than the preceding Majestic-class battleships, but retained the same battery of four 12-inch guns. She also carried thinner armour, but incorporated new Krupp steel, which was more effective than the Harvey armour used in the Majestics. Vengeance was laid down in August 1898, launched in July 1899, and commissioned into the fleet in April 1902.
  On entering service, Vengeance was assigned to the China Station, but the Anglo-Japanese Alliance rendered her presence there unnecessary, and she returned to European waters in 1905. Late that year, she underwent a refit that lasted into 1906. She then served in the Channel Fleet until 1908, when she moved to the Home Fleet, thereafter serving in secondary roles, including as a tender and a gunnery training ship. In 1913, she was transferred to the 6th Battle Squadron of the Second Fleet.
context_section_description: On 22 January 1915, Vengeance was selected to take part in the Dardanelles campaign. She stopped at Gibraltar that month to embark Admiral John de Robeck and become second flagship of the Dardanelles squadron, and arrived at the Dardanelles in February 1915. Admiral Sackville Carden, the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, devised a plan to force the straits and attack the Ottoman capital by neutralising the Ottoman coastal defences at long range, clearing the minefields in the Dardanelles, and then entering the Sea of Marmara.
  Vengeance participated in the opening bombardment of the Ottoman Turkish entrance forts on 18 February and 19 February 1915, though her role as de Robeck's flagship limited her to observing the fire of the other ships in his formation. The battleship Cornwallis developed problems with her capstan and so could not anchor in her firing position, forcing Vengeance to take her place. She bombarded the Orkanie fortress with direct fire, but aerial reconnaissance proved that the fortress guns had not been disabled. Nevertheless, Carden ordered Vengeance and several other battleships to close with their targets and engage them at close range. The French battleship Suffren joined Vengeance in shelling Orkanie. Later in the afternoon, both ships began to engage a battery at Kumkale with their main guns, while their secondary battery kept firing at Orkanie. At 16:10, Carden ordered them to cease fire and inspect the fortification. On closing, Vengeance came under heavy fire from Orkanie and a battery at Cape Helles. Contre-amiral (Rear Admiral) Émile Guépratte, the commander of the French contingent, later wrote that "the daring attack of the Vengeance in flinging herself against the forts when their fire was in no way reduced was one of the finest episodes of the day." She suffered some damage to her masts and rigging from gunfire from the forts, but she was not hit directly. Several other battleships came to her aid, and at 17:20, Carden ordered a retreat.
  On 25 February, Vengeance took part in another attack on the Dardanelles fortresses. Along with Cornwallis and the French battleships Suffren and Charlemagne, she led the assault, which was supported by one French and three British battleships. Once the four supporting battleships had taken up their positions and begun firing at long range to suppress the Ottoman batteries, Vengeance and Cornwallis made the first pass at close range, intending to destroy the guns with direct hits. De Robeck took Vengeance to within 4,000 yards (3,700 m) of the fortifications at Kumkale and fired for ten minutes, before turning about to allow Cornwallis to engage the guns. The two French ships then followed, and by 15:00, the Ottoman guns had been effectively silenced, allowing for minesweepers to advance and attempt to clear the minefields; most of the fleet withdrew while the minesweepers worked, though Vengeance and the battleships Albion and Triumph remained behind to cover them.
  By clearing these fields, Allied warships could now enter the Dardanelles themselves, opening the route to attack additional fortifications around the town of Dardanus. While other vessels shelled the forts there, Vengeance and the battleship Irresistible sent men ashore to destroy an abandoned artillery battery near Kumkale, with both ships remaining off shore to support the raid. The men landed unopposed, but the detachment from Vengeance quickly came under fire from Ottoman infantry on the far side of Kumkale. Lieutenant-Commander Eric Gascoigne Robinson, who led Vengeance's demolition party, went forward by himself to destroy an Ottoman anti-aircraft gun, then led his detachment to destroy a second anti-aircraft gun and the one remaining gun at the Orkanie battery. For his actions, he was awarded the Victoria Cross. Ottoman resistance prevented any further action, and the men returned to Vengeance.
  By late February, Vengeance was in need of boiler maintenance, so de Robeck transferred his flag to Irresistible while Vengeance went to Mudros for repairs. She had returned by 6 Mar
caption: Map showing the Ottoman defences at the Dardanelles in 1915
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