The eighth HMS ''Vanguard'' of the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

was an central battery ironclad battleship, by Edward Reed launched in 1870. In 1875, the ship was sunk during a summer cruise in a collision in fog with the ironclad . None of the crew were lost, but the commanding officer of the ship never commanded another vessel in his career. The wreck lies near the Kish lightship off the coast of Ireland and is protected under the Irish National Monument Act.

Design and construction

''Vanguard'' was long between perpendiculars. She had a beam of and a draught of forward and aft. The ship normally displaced .

Propulsion

''Vanguard'' was with two sets of 2-cylinder horizontal single expansion, return connecting-rod and 6 rectangular boilers that drove twin screws. The engine had a total designed output of which gave ''Vanguard'' a maximum speed of .

Armament

Her armament consisted of ten 12-ton MLR guns all in a two-tier central battery where six were on MD and two on UD. Furthermore she had four /64-pounder (71 cwt) MLR on UD, with two forward and two aft and six 20-pounder guns for saluting.Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889 p. 250

Service history

''Vanguard'' — under the command of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ...

, sailed out of Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire) harbour on 27 August 1875 in company with three other ironclads, , and . The ships were part of the First Reserve Squadron and were on a summer cruise around the Irish coast. The squadron — under the command of

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Tarleton, was ''en route'' to Queenstown (

Cobh Cobh ( ,), known from 1849 until 1920 as Queenstown, is a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Ireland. With a population of around 13,000 inhabitants, Cobh is on the south side of Great Island in Cork Harbour and home to Ireland's ...

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where the cruise would finish. As they passed the Kish lightship, a heavy fog came down which restricted visibility to less than a ship's length. ''Vanguard''s sister ship — ''Iron Duke'' — noticed she was drifting off course and began returning to her proper station. A problem with her steam plant rendered her

foghorn A foghorn or fog signal is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of navigational hazards such as rocky coastlines, or boats of the presence of other vessels, in foggy conditions. The term is most often used in relation to marine transport. Wh ...

inoperable, and could not be used to alert the other vessels of her position or course. At about 12:50, a look-out on ''Vanguard'' spotted a sailing ship directly ahead. As ''Vanguard'' turned to avoid it, ''Iron Duke'' appeared out of the fog on her port side less than away. Collision was unavoidable. ''Iron Duke''s underwater ram tore open ''Vanguard''s hull near her boilers. ''Iron Duke'' freed herself after a few minutes, sustaining only minor damage. ''Vanguard'', however, was sinking. Her pumps could move water at a rate of 3,000 lb/min (23 kg/s) but the flooding exceeded 50 long tons per minute (847 kg/s). The pumps were powered by the engines, which shut down ten minutes after the collision when the engine room flooded. The loss of the Vanguard

''Vanguard'' and ''Iron Duke'' both launched all boats. The abandonment was completed in good order with Captain Dawkins the last of the 360 crew aboard to leave and the only casualty was his dog which was lost. ''Warrior'' and ''Hector'' sailed on in the fog and only learned of the sinking upon reaching Queenstown. Seventy minutes after the collision, ''Vanguard'' rested on the seabed deep. The tips of her masts were still visible above the surface. The

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was confident that the ship could be raised and diving operations started, but were soon abandoned. Captain Dawkins was blamed at the court martial for not doing enough to save his vessel following the collision, and never received command of another vessel. Contemporary popular opinion, however, was sympathetic towards him. The wreck was rediscovered in 1985 and lies in of water. The wreck is protected under the Irish National Monument Act, and a licence from the National Monuments Service is required to dive it.

Notes and references

Bibliography

* * * * * R. Winfield/D. Lyon: ''The Sail and Steam Navy List. All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889''. Chatham Publishing, London 2004, {{DEFAULTSORT:Vanguard (1869) Audacious-class ironclads Victorian-era battleships of the United Kingdom Maritime accidents involving fog Shipwrecks in the Irish Sea 1870 ships Maritime incidents in September 1875 Ships sunk in collisions Ships with box type boilers