HMS Vanguard (1835)
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| Career[1] |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | June 1832 |
| Laid down: | May 1833 |
| Launched: | 25 Aug 1835 |
| First commissioned: | 1837 |
| Converted to Steam: | Never |
| Broken up: | 1875 |
| Specification[2] | |
| Displacement: | 2,889 tons |
| Tonnage (BOM): | 2,609 tons |
| Overall Length: | 190 ft |
| Length of Keel for Tonnage: | 155 ft 3 in |
| Beam: | 56 ft 9 in |
| Depth in Hold: | 23 ft 4 in |
| Draught: | |
| Engine: | None |
| Speed under power: | NA |
| Rig: | |
| Speed under sail: | |
| Complement: | 700-750 (gun crew = 702 men) |
| Armament (4 Jul 1832): | |
| Gun deck | 26 x 32 pdr 56 cwt, 2 x 68 pdr carronade |
| Main deck | 30 x 32 pdr 56 cwt |
| Quarter deck | 10 x 32 pdr 25 cwt |
| Forecastle | 2 x 18 pdr 42 cwt, 4 x 32 pdr 25 cwt |
| Poop | 4 x 18 pdr 10 cwt |
| Armament (3 Dec 1834): | |
| Gun deck | 26 x 32 pdr 56 cwt, 2 x 68 pdr 60 cwt |
| Main deck | 26 x 32 pdr 48 cwt, 2 x 68 pdr 60 cwt |
| Quarter deck | 14 x 32 pdr 48 cwt |
| Forecastle | 2 x 32 pdr 48 cwt, 4 x 32 pdr 25 cwt |
| Poop | 4 x 18 pdr 10 cwt |
| Cost to build: | £56,983 |
| Cost to fit for sea: | £20,756 |
The sixth HMS Vanguard, of the British Royal Navy was an 78-gun (or 80-gun) second-rate ship of the line, launched in 1835 at Pembroke Yard. She was the first of a new type of sailing battleship: a Symondite.
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[edit] Construction
The Vanguard was designed by John Edye, Chief Clerk in the Surveyor's Office,[3] to the directions of the Surveyor, Captain Sir William Symonds. The Vanguard was the first of a class of eleven. She was ordered from Pembroke Yard in June 1832; HMS Collingwood was ordered "as a duplicate frame using the moulds of Vanguard, to test the efficacy of an American scheme whereby duplicate frames were stored for many years."[4] Vanguard was laid down in May 1833; she required 60 skilled men for 16 weeks to set up the frame. She was launched on schedule in August 1835.[5] At the time she was the broadest ship ever built in England.[6] "Vanguard cost £56,983 to build, and a further £20,756 to fit for sea."[7] Her construction used 3,560 loads of timber and required 186 man-years.[8]
[edit] Characteristics of Symondite Battleships
Warships designed to the ideas of Captain Sir William Symonds (1782-1856) are known as Symondites. His intention was to give the Royal Navy an advantage in speed (under certain weather conditions), allowing it to force action.[9]
Symondite warships were very broad, and had a sharp 'V'-shaped hull-form.[10] (Preceding designs had a 'U'-shaped hull form.)
- Their wide beam gave them very high stability, which allowed them to carry nearly twice the power of sail as vessels of the old type.[11] Unfortunately the Surveyor's department was understaffed,[12] with the result that their stability was over-done. Symondite warships rolled quickly, heavily and sometimes unevenly. This made them poor gun platforms. The rapid rolling also caused the rigging to wear out more quickly than on previous designs.[13]
- Because Symondites got their stability from their great beam, they did not need to carry so much iron ballast as previous designs.[14]
- Their 'V'-shaped hull with its steeply rising floors was inconvenient for carrying stores.[15]
- They had higher and wider gun decks than preceding designs. This gave the gun crews more space to work in, improving efficiency. It also helped their sailing performance, because they were carrying less guns for their size.[16]
- They had an excessively raked stern. In some ships, modifications to their sterns remedy defects in the original design left "the stern timbers badly arranged, weakly supported and held together with irson straps."[17] The Symondite stern "lacked the defensive strength of the true round stern. There was simply too much glass to offer any protection to the crews of the stern battery in action."[18]
Symondite warships were very sensitive to how they were stored.[19] If stored carefully, they were fast in moderate winds, thought they did not do as well as preceding designs in head seas, or rough seas.[20]
Compared with previous designs, Symondites required 19% more loads of wood and 30% more man-hours to build.[21]
Some of the Symondites were converted to steam in the 1850s (though not Vanguard). Their 'V'-shaped hull made it difficult to add a steam engine and boilers and to store coal.[22] The extra weight was low in the ship, exacerbating their excess stability, which made their rolling even worse than before.[23] (In fairness, at the time they were designed, it was never anticipated that they would be converted to steam.)
[edit] Service Life
"Vanguard was commissioned in 1837 by Captain Sir Thomas Fellowes, with the normal picked complement of officers, including Baldwin Walker as First Lieutenant[24] and Mr Miller, one of Symonds's favourite sailing masters. The object was clear. Symonds wanted his ships to be tried by men capable of making the best of their qualities... Out in the Mediterranean Vanguard soon made a name for herself as the fastest ship in the fleet, with the handiness of a frigate when beat out of Grand Harbour [Malta]."[25] At the end of her first three year commission Captain Fellowes wrote that Vanguard had "great stability" was "very easy at sea and works less than ships of her class" and had "great advantage in all points of sailing."[26]
On the night of January 30, 1838, Vanguard was at Malta under the command of Captain Sir Thomas Fellowes. The ship's First Lieutenant, C.M.M. Wright, ordered the Assistant Surgeon, Robert Thomas Charles Scott, to stomach-pump a drunken seaman. Scott expressed the medical opinion that a stomach-pump should not be administered. Wright ordered him to give it anyway as a punishment and reminded Scott that it was an order he had received. A short while later Wright ordered Scott to do the same to another seaman. The next morning Scott reported the matter to Commander Baldwin Walker who reported Scott to the Captain for disrespect and disobedience of a lawful order. Captain Fellowes threatened Scott with a court martial and reported him to Sir William Burnett, the Physician-General of the Navy. When this affair became public knowledge, an Admiralty Order was issued banning the use of a stomach-pump as a punishment.[27]
Captain David Dunn commanded Vanguard from 2 Apr 1843 to Aug 1843. Vanguard again served in the Mediterranean (including operations on the coast of Syria in 1840), and off Lisbon. In October 1843 Vanguard was out of commission at Devonport.[28]
On 4 Feb 1845, Vanguard was commissioned by Captain George Wickens Willes, and served in the Channel Squadron, the 1845 and 1846 Evolutionary Squadrons, and in Mediterranean.[29]
In the first trial of the Evolutionary Squadron of 1845, Vanguard (Captain George Willes) and her sister Superb (Captain Anwar Lowry Corry) were the slowest battleships in the squadron. The Surveyor (Symonds thought that they had been badly stowed and needed recoppering. Once this was done they performed well.[30] Vanguard's captain wrote: "such an entire change has taken place in her motion at sea, steering and working generally (although she is still deficient in her weights low down) that I can scarcely bring myself to believe she is the same ship."[31] Vanguard was refitted after the 1845 trials (as were Superb and Canopus). In the August 1846 trials, Vanguard and Canopus were "nearly alike in performance, with the former superior in smooth water, and the latter in rough."[32] (The significance of Canopus is that she was regarded as one of the best of the previous type of 84-gun two-deckers.)
In May 1846 Evolutionary Squadron exercised firing the stern batteries. This was a rare occurrence and reflects no credit on any of the two-deckers:
- Vanguard took ten minutes to clear for action and then fired two rounds from each stern gun. However the extreme overhang of the stern prevented the muzzles running clear, with the result that there was a minor fire.
- Superb took 15 minutes to clear for action plus an hour to remove her sashes, and then was able to fire without incident.
- Canopus was excused firing altogether.[33]
Captain Willes died on 26 Oct 1847. Captain George Frederick Rich commanded Vanguard in the Mediterranean from 6 Nov 1847 until Vanguard paid off in Mar 1849.[34]
Vanguard did not see service during the Crimean War.[35]
Unlike most members of the Vanguard class, Vanguard was not converted to steam.[36]
Vanguard's last commission was as Coast Guard at Kingston from 18 Feb 1861 to Mar 1862, commanded by Commanded by Captain Edmund Heathcote.[37]
Vanguard was renamed Ajax in 1867, to allow her former name to be given to an ironclad battleship then being laid down in the ways. Ajax (ex-Vanguard) was broken up in 1875.[38]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p158-163.
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p158-163.
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p72.
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p158.
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p158.
- ^ Brown, Before the Ironclad, p39.
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p159, Admiralty to Surveyor 11 Apr 1842 - UK National Archives ADM 83/86.
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p159.
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p71.
- ^ There is a midship section model of Vanguard in the Science Museum in London. A photograph of this model is in: Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p158.
- ^ Comments by Admiral John Hayes summarised in Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p159.
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p32 & 72.
- ^ Brown, Before the Ironclad, p38-41.
- ^ Brown, Before the Ironclad, p38-41.
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p161.
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p71.
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p159.
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p80. There is a model of the Albion's stern in the Science Museum in London.
- ^ "It may do very well for a yacht to require as nice trimming and handling as Albion seems to do, when they are only running a race from Cowes and back, but it is a serious drawback in a two decker." Sir Charles Wood to Lord Minto 30 Nov 1844 (Papers of Lord Minto, National Library of Scotland), quoted in Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p82.
- ^ Brown, Before the Ironclad, p38-41. Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p161-2.
- ^ Lambert, Battleships in Transition p66.
- ^ For instance, the Symondite 3-decker Queen had 1300 cubic feet below the orlop than the slightly smaller Trafalgar (an earlier design). Lambert, Battleships in Transition p17.
- ^ Lambert, Battleships in Transition p63.
- ^ Whilst Lambert claims that Walker was First Lieutenant (The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p159), an online biography of Walker states that Walker had been promoted to commander on 15 Jul 1834, and was commander (i.e. executive officer or 2nd in command) on Vanguard from 1 Sep 1836 until 24 Nov 1838 (Online biography of Admiral Sir Baldwin Wake Walker (1802-1876))
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p159.
- ^ Fellowes to Admiral Sir E Codrington C-in-C Portsmouth 29 Mar 1840 - UK National Archives ADM 87/10, quoted in Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p159.
- ^ Maritime History and Naval Heritage Web Site
- ^ Online history of HMS Vanguard (1835)
- ^ Online history of HMS Vanguard (1835)
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p161.
- ^ Willes to Admiralty 17 Nov 1845, quoted in Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p161.
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p162.
- ^ Lambert, The Last Sailing Battlefleet, p162.
- ^ Online history of HMS Vanguard (1835)
- ^ Online history of HMS Vanguard (1835)
- ^ Lambert, Battleships in Transition
- ^ Online history of HMS Vanguard (1835)
- ^ Online history of HMS Vanguard (1835)
[edit] References
Brown, David K. Before the Ironclad, Development of Ship Design, Propulsion and Armament in the Royal Navy, 1815-60, published Conway Maritime Press, 1990. ISBN 0 85177 532 2
Fincham, John A History of Naval Architecture, pub Whittaker, 1851, reprint Scolar Press, 1979. ISBN 0 85967 569 6
Lambert, Andrew The Last Sailing Battlefleet, Maintaining Naval mastery 1815-1850, published Conway Maritime Press, 1991. ISBN 0-85177-591-8
Lambert, Andrew Battleships in Transition, the Creation of the Steam Battlefleet 1815-1860, published Conway Maritime Press, 1984. ISBN 0 85177 315 X
Online biography of Admiral Sir Baldwin Wake Walker (1802-1876)
