Gallipoli · Turkey · Wreck

HMS Triumph

A 1903 battleship at 73 m, torpedoed off Gaba Tepe by U-21

A pre-dreadnought battleship of 1903, torpedoed off Gaba Tepe on 25 May 1915 by the German submarine U-21. She capsized about ten minutes after the hit, floated upside down for half an hour and then went down; 73 of her crew were lost and Turkey treats the wreck as a memorial grave. Published depths run from 55 to 73 metres, so this is a technical dive.

Where it is and how deep

Depths on a shared scale to 90 m (295 ft); dashed lines mark common certification limits.

40.2067° N, 26.2680° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.

The dive

Triumph sits at the deep end of the Gallipoli park and is run as a technical project, not as an add-on to a recreational day. Published depths disagree sharply — 55 metres in the naval record, 230 feet in one magazine account, 72 to 73 metres on the operators' tables — so the plan is built on the deeper figure, with mixed gas, staged decompression and the operator's call on the day's conditions. The wreck guides list the site as Kabatepe, where the park's dive centre is based.

She was hit amidships by a torpedo from U-21, capsized within about ten minutes, stayed afloat upside down for roughly half an hour and then sank slowly, taking 73 men with her; the wreck is an anıt mezar, a memorial grave. That sets the rules: no penetration, nothing moved, nothing lifted. At 145 m (475 ft) long and over 12,000 tons she is far too big for one dive, so a team briefs a section of the ship and comes back for the rest.

The wreck

Vessel: HMS Triumph
Type: Pre-dreadnought battleship
Length: 144.9 m (475 ft)
Built: 1903
Sunk: 1915
Cause: Torpedoed by the German submarine U-21 under Otto Hersing
Lies: Capsized before sinking; deep off Gaba Tepe and treated as a war grave

Triumph was built in 1903, a battleship of 144.9 m (475 feet 3 inches) and 12,175 long tons at standard load. On 25 May 1915 she was underway off Gaba Tepe when a torpedo from Otto Hersing's U-21 struck her; she capsized in around ten minutes, floated upside down for half an hour and then went down with 73 of her crew. Two days later the same submarine torpedoed Majestic off Cape Helles. The wreck became part of Turkey's Gallipoli Historic Underwater Park, open to divers since October 2021, and is maintained as a memorial grave for the men lost with her.

Marine life and season

The sources we used don't single out particular species here.

Month-by-month season rating for HMS Triumph
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Fair	Fair	Fair	Prime	Prime	Good	Good	Prime	Prime	Good	Fair	Fair

Season follows Gallipoli: April–May and August–September bring the best conditions; the wrecks can be dived all year.

Know before you go

Decompression obligation on every dive here: at 70 m-plus there is no direct ascent, and the run times are long enough to need full technical support.
Divers report strong currents around some of the Gallipoli wrecks; a dive this deep goes on the operator's timing or it does not go.
The wreck is a war grave and a museum exhibit: no penetration, and nothing is moved or recovered.

Dive videos

HMS Triumph - Capturing the Photographer · Gallipoli Wrecks Dive Centre on YouTube

HMS Triumph @ Gallipoli Historical Underwater Park · Murathan Yildiz on YouTube

Questions divers ask

How deep is the HMS Triumph wreck?+

The dive operators publish 72 to 73 m, a magazine account gives 230 feet and the naval record 55 m. Plan for the deeper figure: this is a mixed-gas technical dive either way.

What certification do you need for HMS Triumph?+

Technical training with mixed gas and staged decompression. It is listed as a technical dive on the park's table and reserved for technical diving experts, and it runs with a park guide.