The Empire was built on a strong Navy with a long reach, part of that reach was the construction of a fleet of swift warships. The Northeast of England, centered on Newcastle-upon-Tyne, wor Geordieland, has a Great shipbuilding history. Built up by Whitworth Armstrong, works that built the engines and armament of the dreadnoughts of the seas.

HMS Triumph was the second of the two Swiftsure-class pre-dreadnought battleships of the Royal Navy. Purchased from Chile before completion, she was initially assigned to the Home Fleet andChannel Fleets before being transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1909. The ship briefly rejoined Home Fleet in 1912 before she was transferred abroad to the China Station in 1913. Triumphparticipated 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 theOttoman Empire. She was torpedoed and sunk off Gaba Tepe by the German submarine U-21 on 25 May 1915. (from Wikipedia)

Steam engines for HMS Triumph at Armstrong’s Elswick works, 1901. Twin 6250-HP engines propelled the 475-foot battleship at a reliable speed of 19 kts from her commissioning in 1902 until her fiery demise off Turkey in May 1915. When installed in the ship, the shape of the engine would become less apparent as a grating would be installed at the cylinder head level, just above the top row of gauges, to provide access to valves and controls for other equipment in the engine room. The range of the ship with full load of coal (2000 tons) was 6000 nautical miles at 10 knots. Long Reach indeed! Guy Martin would love this one!

She was lost during the Dardanelles campaign at Gallipoli but the rusted, but still monumental, remains of the Triumph’s twin engines may be glimpsed to this day on dives to the wreck off the coast of Turkey.