On June 22, 1893, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon, commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, led a routine tactical exercise off Tripoli, Lebanon. Commanding from the flagship HMS Victoria, Tryon ordered a complex maneuver: two parallel columns of ironclads were to execute a simultaneous 180-degree inward turn toward one another to reverse course. The maneuver was designed to display Victorian naval discipline, but it suffered from a fatal mathematical flaw.
The two columns were spaced only 1,200 yards apart, yet the combined tactical turning radius of the massive battleships required at least 1,600 yards to clear each other safely. Subordinates, including Rear-Admiral Albert Markham aboard HMS Camperdown, were perplexed by the flag signals hoisted from the flagship. When Markham hesitated to signal compliance, Tryon sent a peremptory follow-up message asking what he was waiting for.
Assuming the respected tactician had a clever solution or intended one column to circle wide, Markham reluctantly ordered Camperdown to turn inward. The two colossal armored ships turned directly onto a collision course. HMS Camperdown's reinforced underwater ram sliced deep into HMS Victoria's starboard bow, tearing open a fatal breach.
Within thirteen minutes, Victoria capsized and sank bow-first, taking 358 crew members, including Admiral Tryon, down with her. Tryon's legendary final words as the ship went under were a stoic confession: 'It was entirely my fault.' The disaster remains one of the most famous examples of blind adherence to authority in naval history.