HMS Triumph (1903)

HMS Triumph
History
Chile
Name:	Libertad
Ordered:	1901
Builder:	Vickers, Sons & Maxim, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down:	26 February 1902
Launched:	15 January 1903
Renamed:	HMS Triumph
Fate:	Sold to the United Kingdom, 3 December 1903
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Triumph
Cost:	£957,520
Completed:	June 1904
Acquired:	3 December 1903
Commissioned:	21 June 1904
Fate:	Torpedoed and sunk by U-21, 25 May 1915
General characteristics
Class and type:	Swiftsure-class pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement:	12,175 long tons (12,370 t) (normal load) 13,840 long tons (14,060 t) (deep load)
Length:	475 ft 3 in (144.9 m) (o/a)
Beam:	71 ft 1 in (21.7 m)
Draught:	27 ft 4 in (8.3 m) (deep)
Installed power:	12,500 ihp (9,300 kW)
Propulsion:	2 shafts 2 × 4-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines 12 × Yarrow boilers
Speed:	19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Range:	6,210 nmi (11,500 km; 7,150 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Crew:	803 (1914)
Armament:	2 × 2 - BL 10-inch (254 mm) Mk VII guns 14 × 1 - BL 7.5-inch (191 mm) guns 14 × 1 - QF 14-pounder (76 mm) Mk II guns 4 × 1 - QF 6-pounder (57 mm) guns 2 × 1 - 17.7-inch (450 mm) submerged torpedo tubes
Armour:	Belt: 3–7 inches (76–178 mm) Bulkheads: 2–6 inches (51–152 mm) Decks: 1–3 inches (25–76 mm) Conning tower: 11 inches (279 mm) Turrets: 8–10 inches (203–254 mm) Barbettes: 2–10 inches (51–254 mm) Casemates: 7 inches (178 mm)

HMS Triumph, originally known as Libertad, was the second of the two Swiftsure-class pre-dreadnought battleships of the Royal Navy. The ship was ordered by the Chilean Navy, but she was purchased by the United Kingdom as part of ending the Argentine–Chilean naval arms race. Triumph was initially assigned to the Home Fleet and Channel Fleets before being transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1909. The ship briefly rejoined the Home Fleet in 1912 before she was transferred abroad to the China Station in 1913. Triumph participated in the hunt for the German East Asia Squadron of Maximilian Graf von Spee and in the campaign against the German colony at Tsingtao, China early in World War I. The ship was transferred to the Mediterranean in early 1915 to participate in the Dardanelles Campaign against the Ottoman Empire. She was torpedoed and sunk off Gaba Tepe by the German submarine U-21 on 25 May 1915.

Triumph was ordered by Chile, with the name of Libertad, in response to the Argentine purchase of two armoured cruisers from Italy during a time of heightened tensions with Argentina. After the crisis subsided, financial problems forced Chile to put the ship up for sale in early 1903; concerned that Russia might buy them, the United Kingdom stepped in and with financing via merchant bank Antony Gibbs & Sons purchased the still-incomplete ships from Chile on 3 December 1903 for £2,432,000. The ship was designed to Chilean specifications, particularly the requirement to fit in the graving dock at Talcahuano, and was regarded by the British as a second-class battleship.

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