HMS Vanguard (1870)

The eighth HMS ''Vanguard'' of the British Royal Navy 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.Lyon & Winfield, p. 250

Service history

''Vanguard'' — under the command of Captain Richard Dawkins, 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 Admiral Tarleton, was ''en route'' to Queenstown (Cobh), County Cork 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 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.

''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 Admiralty 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.

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{{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