The Camperdown

On 22 June 1893 HMS Victoria and HMS Camperdown catastrophically collided in good weather and sank off the coast of Africa resulting in the loss of 360 officers and men. Sir George Tyron, the Admiral of the Fleet, who had given the bizarre order that caused the accident, uttered the last words, ‘It is entirely my fault, entirely my fault’. It was.

The whole country subscribed to a fund for the relief of the resultant widows and orphans, most of whom belonged to Portsmouth.