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Swiftsure & Triumph

Posted: Thu May 24, 2012 10:51 pm
by Dguts1813
While reading thru some earlier posts regarding HMS Agincourt, the subject of HMS Swiftsure & Triumph came up. The writer, and I don't remember who, stated that these two ships were purchased by the RN the during an earlier war scare & the need to match German naval expansion. Not really the case. The ships in question were being built for Chile as Libertad & Constitution as part of an ongoing Naval Arms race with Argentina. In 1903 (or maybe '02, not sure off hand) Chile& Argentina Agreed to submit their differences to arbitration by the Pope. As part of the result Treaty all ships beig built abroad had to be disposed of. The two Chilean Battleships and two Argentine Armored Cruiser were immediately put up for sale. The Japanese tried to buy the Battleships but could not come up with the funds. They ended up buying the two Acr instead which became the Nisshin and Kasuga in Japanese service. The Russians opened negotiation with Chile for the purchase of the Battleships but the British steeped and bought them to keep them out of Russian hands. Swiftsure & Triumph were massively out of step with British design concepts of the time - i.e. the King Edward VII class.

Ed B.

Re: Swiftsure & Triumph

Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 6:20 pm
by RF
Is this a duplicated thread or misposting of a new topic???