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Admirals in Collision: The Saga of a Great Naval Disaster
The tragedy of the H.M.S Victoria is a riddle that no one has ever be able to solve.
The flagship of the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet sank within ten minutes of colliding with another Navy Battleship, causing both despair and confusion as people wondered how it could have sunk so quickly. It has been a mystery ever since it took place, whilst also being an enormous tragedy that caused the loss of 350 crew.
Through concise but gripping detail, Hough explores and discusses the facts through studying two protagonists in the catastrophe, shedding light on how the accident could have possibly happened.
Praise for Richard Hough:
‘Solid entertainment for fans of period naval action’ – Kirkus Review
‘Hough is a good storyteller with a refreshing, breezy style’ – The Wall Street Journal
‘Hough is shrewd and subtle’ – The Sunday Telegraph
Richard Hough, the distinguished naval historian, was the author of many acclaimed books in the field, including The Fleet That Had to Die, Admirals in Collision, The Great War at Sea: 1914-18, and The Longest Battle: The War at Sea 1939-45. He was the biographer of Mountbatten, and his last biography, Captain James Cook, became a world bestseller.
The flagship of the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet sank within ten minutes of colliding with another Navy Battleship, causing both despair and confusion as people wondered how it could have sunk so quickly. It has been a mystery ever since it took place, whilst also being an enormous tragedy that caused the loss of 350 crew.
Through concise but gripping detail, Hough explores and discusses the facts through studying two protagonists in the catastrophe, shedding light on how the accident could have possibly happened.
Praise for Richard Hough:
‘Solid entertainment for fans of period naval action’ – Kirkus Review
‘Hough is a good storyteller with a refreshing, breezy style’ – The Wall Street Journal
‘Hough is shrewd and subtle’ – The Sunday Telegraph
Richard Hough, the distinguished naval historian, was the author of many acclaimed books in the field, including The Fleet That Had to Die, Admirals in Collision, The Great War at Sea: 1914-18, and The Longest Battle: The War at Sea 1939-45. He was the biographer of Mountbatten, and his last biography, Captain James Cook, became a world bestseller.
161 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 1961
About the author
Richard Hough
142 books24 followersRichard Alexander Hough was a British author and historian specializing in naval history. As a child, he was obsessed with making model warships and collecting information about navies around the world. In 1941, he joined the Royal Air Force and trained at a flying school near Los Angeles. He flew Hurricanes and Typhoons and was wounded in action.
After World War II, Hough worked as a part-time delivery driver for a wine shop, while looking for employment involving books. He finally joined the publishing house Bodley Head, and then Hamish Hamilton, where he eventually headed the children’s book division.
His work as a publisher inspired him to turn to writing himself in 1950, and he went on to write more than ninety books over a long and successful career. Best-known for his works of naval history and his biographies, he also wrote war novels and books for children (under the pseudonym Bruce Carter), all of which sold in huge numbers around the world. His works include The Longest Battle: The War at Sea 1939-45, Naval Battles of the Twentieth Century and best-selling biographies of Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Captain James Cook. Captain Bligh and Mr Christian, his 1972 account of the mutiny on the Bounty, was the basis of the 1984 film The Bounty, starring Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson.
Hough was the official historian of the Mountbatten family and a longtime student of Churchill. Winston Churchill figures prominently in nine of his books, including Former Naval Person: Churchill and the Wars at Sea. He won the Daily Express Best Book of the Sea Award in 1972.
After World War II, Hough worked as a part-time delivery driver for a wine shop, while looking for employment involving books. He finally joined the publishing house Bodley Head, and then Hamish Hamilton, where he eventually headed the children’s book division.
His work as a publisher inspired him to turn to writing himself in 1950, and he went on to write more than ninety books over a long and successful career. Best-known for his works of naval history and his biographies, he also wrote war novels and books for children (under the pseudonym Bruce Carter), all of which sold in huge numbers around the world. His works include The Longest Battle: The War at Sea 1939-45, Naval Battles of the Twentieth Century and best-selling biographies of Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Captain James Cook. Captain Bligh and Mr Christian, his 1972 account of the mutiny on the Bounty, was the basis of the 1984 film The Bounty, starring Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson.
Hough was the official historian of the Mountbatten family and a longtime student of Churchill. Winston Churchill figures prominently in nine of his books, including Former Naval Person: Churchill and the Wars at Sea. He won the Daily Express Best Book of the Sea Award in 1972.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 24, 2018
When Walter Lord wrote A Night to Remember in 1955 there were other writers on sea stories around, most notably Edward Snow who concentrated on New England stories and tales of disaster, with occasional volumes like Great Gales and Dire Disasters. There was also Alexander Brown who wrote Women and Children Last, one of the two leading accounts of the September 1854 collision of the Collins liner Arctic and the Vesta off Cape Race, which resulted in over 450 lives lost (with no women and only one teenager saved from the sunken Arctic), and the works of Alan Villiers. Then along came Richard Hough. A gifted British navy historian, in 1958 he wrote this book "Admirals in Collision". The edition I own happens to be this old paperback edition.
One hundred and twenty five years ago yesterday (literally on June 23, 1893), tragedy struck Britain's second major naval fleet, when it was commanded by the most promising British Admiral of that period. If anyone symbolized the best thinking of late Victorian naval ideas it was Vice Admiral Sir George Tryon, a balding, heavyset sailor with a large set of whiskers. Tryon was ahead of his time, trying to instill self-confidence and self-thinking regimens into his junior officers, frequently giving complicated naval fleet maneuvers for them to solve. He also (in those pre-wireless telegraphy days) invented the "T.A." system of flag signals to send messages between ships. He was to be the last naval officer to hold the post of chief navy secretary before (after his death) it became a civil service position. In 1888 he demonstrated his abilities in a navy test when he successfully led a naval invasion of the British Isles by a fictitious foreign power. It is ironic that the forces for Britain in this test were headed by Rear Admiral Albert Hastings Markham. On June 23, 1893 it was Markham who killed Tryon.
While there is no reason not to be proud of Tryon's accomplishments, Markham also had one major one. In 1877, he would achieve the highest (until then) North Polar distance by sled (roughly 78 degrees N) in Greenland. His interest in Polar Exploration must have been due to family connections as his cousin was Sir Clement Markham, one of the main leaders of the Royal Geographical Society. And to be fair, in the 19th Century polar achievement was a sure road to high rank in the British navy. But Markham had never shown much promise in the regular navy - and his performance in the 1888 test was dismal. One suggests he would have been better off working at some desk job for the rest of his career, but others had other ideas about his "usefulness".
Tryon was soon transferred to the Mediterranean Squadron, the second major fleet in the British Navy after the home waters fleet. Soon he was carrying out his maneuvers and testing his junior officers. However there was a negative to this - because of his reputation few really were willing to question some of the maneuvers, even when it might have behooved them to do so. Tryon was a proud man, and didn't like being questioned by subordinates. Later he could explain what they did right or wrong.
Markham was likewise transferred to the Squadron, and Tryon was not really happy about this. The ease of his "victory" in 1888 (while pleasant for his ego) sat badly because he knew in a real war he had to depend on Markham. So while the two considered their relationship, it remained a proper one, but hardly a close one.
In 1890 HMS Victoria was built and launched. The newest and fastest of the ironclad warships of Victorian England, it was of the "San Parail" Class (named for it's slightly older sister ship. It had two huge canons above it's deck, and it carried over 650 men. It was delivered to the Mediterranean Squadron, and became the flagship under Tryon and Captain Maurice Bourke. Interestingly one of the junior officers on it was John Jellicoe, who would be the head of the British Navy in World War I, and it's commander in the battle of Jutland.
On June 23, 1893 Tryon and the Squadron were off the Lebanese Coast, near Tripoli. It was a flawlessly clear and calm day, and the Squadron was split into two lines one of eight ships led by Victory, and one of seven ships led by HMS Camperdown, led by Markham. The two columns were at a distance of six cables between the ships when Tryon sent his series of orders. They were to turn into each other and end up with the two columns still being left (Tryon's) and Right (Markham's). Apparently this meant that Markham's ships either passed around the line of Tryon's or Tryon's around the line of Markham's.
There was just one major thing that bothered everyone hearing the orders. For this maneuver to work safely both lines of ships should have been more like ten cable lengths apart, not six. The two lines were too close. Bourke, very carefully asked Tryon if he was sure the two lines should be six cable lengths apart. Tryon said he did. Markham also sent a message about this. More testily, Tryon repeated the order and the distance between the columns.
Not really happy about this "reassurance" concerning the orders, Markham ordered the Camperdown to turn it's line into Victoria's. And slowly the Camperdown headed directly towards the flagship, until it hit Victoria's side. Camperdown, like many 19th Century ironclad vessels, was armed with a iron ram. After an agonizing moment Camperdown backed out of Victoria, her entire bow a mess of twisted metal. But Victoria was in worse shape, filling up with water. Men in sick bay that day (including Jellicoe, who was lucky) got up to the deck to find the new battleship beginning to settle and turn over. With Tryon's assent, Bourke gave orders to send for lifeboats from other vessels, and to abandon Victoria. This was done, but the flagship was too badly damaged. She turned over on her side, spilling most of the British sailors into the sea. Tryon was still on board, and one of the survivors later said he muttered, "It's all my fault!" Soon he too was in the sea, and he and 358 sailors did not survive the tragedy.
The loss of Tryon and his Victoria has been compared to the Charge of the Light Brigade as an example of when obedience to bad orders is carried too far. In the end a Court Martial regretfully found that the blame was Tryon's, but as he was dead with half of his ship's company there was no move to darken his memory. Markham, however, with his insignificant naval record was another matter. He was assigned naval duties at desks in navy yards until he retired (still a Rear Admiral) in 1900. He died in 1918. While some said he was crucified for another man's blunder, others felt he should never show his face again.
Hough is very good presenting this odd and troubling story of obedience in the face of realities of bad orders. But he does than that - he asks what Tryon possibly had in mind about the two columns. He is not the first man to do so (Rupert Gould did the same in an essay in his book "Enigmas" about the Victoria disaster), but he shows the various possible ideas Tryon might have had if only Markham had shown more initiative. He looks at those last words of Tryon, and suggests two possible explanations that show what Tryon meant. Did Sir George mean what it seems he meant: "I have bungled the orders and now my men shall die and my ship be sunk. It's all my fault, but I will go down with them because it is so!" Or did he mean, "I have made two mistakes and serious ones here. I have failed to instill enough initiative in the junior officers as I planned, and I relied on that fool Markham when I should have known it would not work out. That is all my fault!". Which possibly was the correct meaning (including some middle version of both), and which would Hough believe. He doesn't say, but leaves it up to the reader to ponder.
One hundred and twenty five years ago yesterday (literally on June 23, 1893), tragedy struck Britain's second major naval fleet, when it was commanded by the most promising British Admiral of that period. If anyone symbolized the best thinking of late Victorian naval ideas it was Vice Admiral Sir George Tryon, a balding, heavyset sailor with a large set of whiskers. Tryon was ahead of his time, trying to instill self-confidence and self-thinking regimens into his junior officers, frequently giving complicated naval fleet maneuvers for them to solve. He also (in those pre-wireless telegraphy days) invented the "T.A." system of flag signals to send messages between ships. He was to be the last naval officer to hold the post of chief navy secretary before (after his death) it became a civil service position. In 1888 he demonstrated his abilities in a navy test when he successfully led a naval invasion of the British Isles by a fictitious foreign power. It is ironic that the forces for Britain in this test were headed by Rear Admiral Albert Hastings Markham. On June 23, 1893 it was Markham who killed Tryon.
While there is no reason not to be proud of Tryon's accomplishments, Markham also had one major one. In 1877, he would achieve the highest (until then) North Polar distance by sled (roughly 78 degrees N) in Greenland. His interest in Polar Exploration must have been due to family connections as his cousin was Sir Clement Markham, one of the main leaders of the Royal Geographical Society. And to be fair, in the 19th Century polar achievement was a sure road to high rank in the British navy. But Markham had never shown much promise in the regular navy - and his performance in the 1888 test was dismal. One suggests he would have been better off working at some desk job for the rest of his career, but others had other ideas about his "usefulness".
Tryon was soon transferred to the Mediterranean Squadron, the second major fleet in the British Navy after the home waters fleet. Soon he was carrying out his maneuvers and testing his junior officers. However there was a negative to this - because of his reputation few really were willing to question some of the maneuvers, even when it might have behooved them to do so. Tryon was a proud man, and didn't like being questioned by subordinates. Later he could explain what they did right or wrong.
Markham was likewise transferred to the Squadron, and Tryon was not really happy about this. The ease of his "victory" in 1888 (while pleasant for his ego) sat badly because he knew in a real war he had to depend on Markham. So while the two considered their relationship, it remained a proper one, but hardly a close one.
In 1890 HMS Victoria was built and launched. The newest and fastest of the ironclad warships of Victorian England, it was of the "San Parail" Class (named for it's slightly older sister ship. It had two huge canons above it's deck, and it carried over 650 men. It was delivered to the Mediterranean Squadron, and became the flagship under Tryon and Captain Maurice Bourke. Interestingly one of the junior officers on it was John Jellicoe, who would be the head of the British Navy in World War I, and it's commander in the battle of Jutland.
On June 23, 1893 Tryon and the Squadron were off the Lebanese Coast, near Tripoli. It was a flawlessly clear and calm day, and the Squadron was split into two lines one of eight ships led by Victory, and one of seven ships led by HMS Camperdown, led by Markham. The two columns were at a distance of six cables between the ships when Tryon sent his series of orders. They were to turn into each other and end up with the two columns still being left (Tryon's) and Right (Markham's). Apparently this meant that Markham's ships either passed around the line of Tryon's or Tryon's around the line of Markham's.
There was just one major thing that bothered everyone hearing the orders. For this maneuver to work safely both lines of ships should have been more like ten cable lengths apart, not six. The two lines were too close. Bourke, very carefully asked Tryon if he was sure the two lines should be six cable lengths apart. Tryon said he did. Markham also sent a message about this. More testily, Tryon repeated the order and the distance between the columns.
Not really happy about this "reassurance" concerning the orders, Markham ordered the Camperdown to turn it's line into Victoria's. And slowly the Camperdown headed directly towards the flagship, until it hit Victoria's side. Camperdown, like many 19th Century ironclad vessels, was armed with a iron ram. After an agonizing moment Camperdown backed out of Victoria, her entire bow a mess of twisted metal. But Victoria was in worse shape, filling up with water. Men in sick bay that day (including Jellicoe, who was lucky) got up to the deck to find the new battleship beginning to settle and turn over. With Tryon's assent, Bourke gave orders to send for lifeboats from other vessels, and to abandon Victoria. This was done, but the flagship was too badly damaged. She turned over on her side, spilling most of the British sailors into the sea. Tryon was still on board, and one of the survivors later said he muttered, "It's all my fault!" Soon he too was in the sea, and he and 358 sailors did not survive the tragedy.
The loss of Tryon and his Victoria has been compared to the Charge of the Light Brigade as an example of when obedience to bad orders is carried too far. In the end a Court Martial regretfully found that the blame was Tryon's, but as he was dead with half of his ship's company there was no move to darken his memory. Markham, however, with his insignificant naval record was another matter. He was assigned naval duties at desks in navy yards until he retired (still a Rear Admiral) in 1900. He died in 1918. While some said he was crucified for another man's blunder, others felt he should never show his face again.
Hough is very good presenting this odd and troubling story of obedience in the face of realities of bad orders. But he does than that - he asks what Tryon possibly had in mind about the two columns. He is not the first man to do so (Rupert Gould did the same in an essay in his book "Enigmas" about the Victoria disaster), but he shows the various possible ideas Tryon might have had if only Markham had shown more initiative. He looks at those last words of Tryon, and suggests two possible explanations that show what Tryon meant. Did Sir George mean what it seems he meant: "I have bungled the orders and now my men shall die and my ship be sunk. It's all my fault, but I will go down with them because it is so!" Or did he mean, "I have made two mistakes and serious ones here. I have failed to instill enough initiative in the junior officers as I planned, and I relied on that fool Markham when I should have known it would not work out. That is all my fault!". Which possibly was the correct meaning (including some middle version of both), and which would Hough believe. He doesn't say, but leaves it up to the reader to ponder.
June 8, 2024
Examination of the classic 19th Century Collision.
The story is told well. The kindel edition has occasional auto-spellings, e.g “Try on…” for Adam Tryon.. And the charts are not included, The USN mid 20th practice was the intention of an manoverr was to be clearly understood, but that apparently was the case then.
The story is told well. The kindel edition has occasional auto-spellings, e.g “Try on…” for Adam Tryon.. And the charts are not included, The USN mid 20th practice was the intention of an manoverr was to be clearly understood, but that apparently was the case then.
February 6, 2021
Interesting Story
This Is a very well written story about a fascinating chapter in the history of the Royal Navy. Great read!!
This Is a very well written story about a fascinating chapter in the history of the Royal Navy. Great read!!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews