Christian Francis, the owner of Lebanon Divers dive center had been searching for HMS Victoria, the flagship of the British Mediterranean Feet since 1996.

History

LebanonDivers.com

On 22nd June 1893, the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet was about to
anchor off Tripoli, Lebanon. HMS VICTORIA was the flagship of Admiral
Tryon, Commander in Chief, who was conducting manoeuvres before anchoring.
He ordered that his ships form two columns, one led by him and the other
by his second in command, Rear Admiral Markham in CAMPERDOWN. Tryon, an acknowledged expert in ship handling, ordered that the two columns turn inwards towards each other to arrive on reciprocal courses prior to anchoring. Unfortunately the two columns were only six cables (1200 yards) apart.
Because of the ships’ turning circles, this meant that a collision was inevitable. CAMPERDOWN collided with VICTORIA and the latter sank in about 10 minutes. Admiral Tryon and more than 350 of the ship’s company went down with her.
In an instant the Mediterranean fleet had lost its admiral and its flagship, named after the reigning monarch.

The subsequent court martial placed the blame on Tryon. No culpability was assigned either to Markham or Tryon’s Flag Captain. A stunned Britain and admiralty wanted answers. How could such a catastrophe have occurred? Why did no one prevent the collision? Why did the Victoria sink so fast, when the damage she sustained was limited to her bows only?

The above mysteries had scores of historians and divers alike trying to answer questions for nearly a century. The sinking of HMS VICTORIA was more than the loss of a flagship with her admiral; it was the beginning of a new chapter of changing maritime doctrine that would likely have shaped the future of battle afloat everywhere. Since she sank, divers have wondered where the VICTORIA lay and if she could be visited by underwater explorers and salvage companies in the hope of solving her secrets.

Finding VICTORIA

Christian Francis has been running Lebanon Divers for over 10 years. He has been looking for HMS VICTORIA for even longer after hearing fishermen’ s stories and visiting Tripoli (VICTORIA) Naval Cemetery, dedicated by the Admiralty to the sailors who perished on the 22nd of June, 1893. Creating a virtual shrine to HMS VICTORIA, Christian visited repetitively the National Maritime Museum in London, British newspaper and historic archives, gleaning information about the sinking that might one day lead to the ship’s discovery.

Christian says: “Accounts passed down through generations of local fishermen gave the wreck’s position “very far from the coast, too deep to dive on”. Landmarks and depth of seabed noted by VICTORIA’s Captain Maurice Bourke just before the collision – mentioned in the Minutes of Proceedings at a Court-Martial to Enquire into the Loss of Her Majesty’s Ship VICTORIA, published by HMSO in 1893 and a copy of which was kept at the National Maritime Museum – gave transit marks that could be translated to modern global positioning co-ordinates: “The Fleet steered at 2.45 E. by N. On this course the Flagship passed 21/2 miles north of Ramkine Light House”, “At 3:20 Lion’s Tower bore S. by E.”. Another mention by Flag-Lieutenant Guilford would read: “The Admiral remained on deck. He asked the Staff Commander
what water we were in; he replied, “deep water, 70 or 80 fathoms.” While reading these words, I realized the wreck was at touching distance. This is when I gained absolute certainty I would find something, one day”. Indeed some fishermen have actually unknowingly fished the ships’ resting position, but modern depth sounding equipment has failed to reveal any visual clues to confirm the presence of the 400 foot long warship. The depth of the sea bed in the rough proximity of HMS VICTORIA is 150 m deep, and as such, has excluded scuba divers from scouring the area searching for the ship by sight. December – January 2004, Christian scanned the seabed in a predetermined search area, finding very conclusive echoes in a flat desert. The possible debris field, surrounded by enormous schools of fish had to be dived:

In March 2004 Christian met Mark Ellyatt in London, while researching – for a fifth time – British archives. He wanted to see if Mark’s technical diving experience and deep wreck finding skills could help in the search for HMS VICTORIA. Christian says: “I took my decision immediately, Mark inspired trust. And he had the ideal profile, being the deepest wreck videographer around”. Mark was on board. Then followed a 3 months period of preparations, all focused on total success for the Project.
Boats were pulled out for yearly maintenance; new equipment had to be acquired, available equipment serviced and double checked, all for a team of four, all in double. Down lines and floats, on board electronics, tools were made ready. In July the two divers met at Beirut Airport and during the drive to the dive centre at Enfeh, Lebanon, discussed again their plan of attack that would allow a dive team to dive and confirm the identity of the wreck. As Christian wanted to obtain as much video footage as possible, many practice dives were carried out to improve confidence and mobility in deep water. After approximately 22 dives to a maximum depth of 122m, the divers and support team were working smoothly and it was time to complete a fly past of some possible wreck positions. The initial plan was to make a series of exploration dives to 120m and drop magnesium flares to illuminate the sea bed below.

August 2005 – VICTORIA found

The electronics on board the dive boat did reveal again the same echoes encountered a few months before. But the relative height above the sea bed was so low that it suggested the 10,400 ton vessel had submerged into a soft mud or sediment. Suddenly, the depth sounder revealed a highly unusual image that showed a large object seemingly floating in mid water,
looking like what could have been a large trawl net that was tangled around wreckage at 500 feet depth. It could not possibly have been the wreck itself, we dismissed this possibility with absolute certainty!!! Days and hours were spent searching for the highest point of the debris field in an attempt to bear fruit during the project’ s early period and the day just before. The time was nearing 16:00 PM and the sun low in the sky. The divers had enough and decided to go for the highest echo, “the trawl net”. Haidar threw the weighted down line.

Christian continues: “The trip was joined by Major Paul Pitchfork
who flew over to assist the team at Mark’s promise of some deep wreck finding and a project that was steeped in intrigue as Mark and I were not forthcoming with the wreck’s possible identity. He was to be our back-up/safety diver. At 16:05 the three of us went down. Visibility was easily 30-40m, the seas relatively calm, water temperature a comfortable 28 �C and almost no current and. Deeper and deeper, ambient light was starting to turn into a deep blue twilight, the line was guiding us into the dark at a diagonal angle. At reaching about hundred meters down – we should have been deep enough, and once again looking around to see if the net
was anywhere close, I saw a huge shadow in my peripheral sight to the west, our left. At once, the team stopped descending into the darkness, as we had suddenly all realized that a huge shadow was looming in the distance, but close enough to cut ambient light. At depth the current had died down and we all let go of the down line swimming at a steep angle towards this strange sight, going instinctively for it’ s highest point. I was keeping in mind that we were swimming in dangerous waters, possibly infested with fishing lines, hooks and nets. My torchlight was put to use, scanning the water for eventual lines & hooks, lost in mid-water. Looking to the other two, I made sure that we swam in a squadron. The closer I swam, the better I could make out the outline of what was to become my life’ s most unbelievable sight! Suddenly, time stopped. Victoria’s
propellers were there, frozen in time. Tryon’s lost admiral ship was towering above me, pointing towards the sky and emerging from the abyss. Tryon and all 358 men lost when she sank came to my mind in a religious moment.
This is when my hand reached to the regulator I was breathing from and took it out for my lips to touch the wreck. I kept hovering above the props for a minute or two, all in awe. Looking down alongside the hull it looked enormous as a school of fish was circling the wreck in a tight procession. Mark and Paul looked both fine, nobody really had eyes for anything else but the wreck. Suddenly, the back cannon deck side came to my mind. I swam over the stern, past the flag pole that had no flag (it must have rotted away, I thought) and looked down to see it’s mouth still covered, pointing to towards me a few meters below. The wood on the upper deck was still all there, well preserved. Little fish were everywhere, the whole scene was surreal”.

“VICTORIA was indeed standing completely vertical, its bows surely buried into the sea bed. The original photographs showed the ship as it slipped below the waves 111 years before, it had indeed sunk bows first with the propellers still turning at near maximum revolutions. The bow
of the Victoria was fitted with an enormous metal ram that would have pushed deep into the soft clay of the sea bed and combined with the sheer weight of the vessel and continued downward thrust of the propellers ensured the ship took a good purchase of the seabed and stood like a tombstone all this time waiting for discovery. We had made the greatest wreck find imaginable; the 10,400 ton HMS VICTORIA was standing in front of us oriented completely vertically and looked in excellent condition. As we neared the wreck we ascended towards the enormous bronze propellers and rudder. Parts of the hull were covered in red algue that looked like it still had it’s original red paint; as was the rudder, the twin screws, eachsome 5 metres across.

The sight of the enormous rear facing gun and the propellers confirmed that this was the right vessel, but reading the ship’s name VICTORIA as it clearly stood out in 12inch raised letters, positively identified it.
The name was emblazoned across the hull, Victoria had given up her secret. It was important not let this breathtaking scene make us deviate from our dive plan. I was mindful of the time we had spent at depth already approaching 15 minutes between 120m and 90m. We could spend just 5 more minutes at 77m before the original decompression plan was compromised. Now that the descent line was out of reach, Mark used his primary reel (Kent) with its 120m of yellow line to tie a temporary up line to ease the ascent and mark HMS Victoria’s exact location. An hour and a fifty minutes of deco flew by like no time. Then, we surfaced speechless and stunned for some time until we resumed with the traditional photo session.

Just to see the majestic flagship at all, was an amazing achievement. I had hoped to find the VICTORIA sitting flat on the seabed perhaps on it’s side or even upside down, partially submerged in soft clay in depths approaching 150 m. Mark and I had agreed to dive it to this depth a maximum of 3 times to obtain enough video footage to enable a video documentary.
The feeling during the decompression stops and upon surfacing was of total elation, we could not have been more fortunate, and this was celebrated the same evening with champagne for all the team. Finding HMS VICTORIA standing vertically and with the shallowest parts in “only” 77m was utterly fantastic and allowed 17 more dives in the following two
weeks.

See the videos of diving the Victoria with Mark Ellyatt.

Christian Francis Founder Lebanon Divers Contact address: Lebanon Divers Mardelli Building 2nd Floor Saide Street Ashrafieh – Beirut Lebanon

Tel: 00961-1-322826 Mobile: 00961-3-602614 Fax: 00961-1-329441 info@lebanondivers.com www.lebanondivers.com