The Vanguard.

We like to cover ship wrecks and collisions at sea and record the sometimes heroic, and at all times, humanitarian actions by the Coastguards to render help to the human victims. In the case of the "Vanguard" collision with the "Iron Duke" there was no Coastguard involvement, no lives to save. However over 350 Coastguards from all over Ireland had just completed their seasonal training course aboard this large warship days before she sank.

It was the best of days, it was the worst of days. The 'Vanguard' had been stationed at Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) for four years and had just completed a summer season of training duties for some hundreds of Coastguards stationed around the Irish coasts. Most of these men were family men who endured two weeks of rigorous training, sorely missing their loved ones at home in the Coastguard stations. The Navy considered these exercises necessary to keep the men ready for active duty should the need arise.
From the last week in July 1875 the 1st.Reserve Squadron of the Royal Navy had conducted a a cruise around the coasts of Ireland. The object of the cruise was to test the efficiency of the gun crews at gunnery practice. The ships of the squadron were, Warrior, Defence, Hector, Achilles, Penelope and Iron Duke. All were full-rigged ironclads and were among the most modern of the day The cruise was nearly completed when they arrived in Dublin Bay at the end of August. The Defence returned to Lough Swilly, the Penelope to Sheerness.

During the Summer months 350 Coastguards in Ireland had undergone 7 to 14 days training at sea aboard the vanguard. The last of them disembarked on the 30th. of August. At about 10.20 a.m. on the 1st.of September the Vanguard joined the fleet in Dublin Bay and proceeded single line ahead, the speed gradually built up to 7 knots.
There were now four ships going on to Queenstown headed by the Warrior, Hector, Vanguard, Iron Duke and Achilles in that order. At about 11.25 a.m. the squadron passed the Kish light in moderately clear weather. At this time the Achilles was ordered to depart for Liverpool. by 12.30. The Iron Duke and the Vanguard now proceeded to steam parallel to the other two ships. By 12.35 a.m. were now engaged in steering this new course when the ships ran into a dense fog bank, giving visibility of less than a ships length. Later an officer of the Iron Duke would confirm that he had 'never seen so dense a fog'. The outline of a sailing ship began to form through the dense fog on the starboard side of the Vanguard. The helm was thrown hard to starboard and the engines rung to stop, just missing the sailing ship.

The orders were given to turn the ship back on its original course. Unwittingly this put her across the path of the approaching, though still invisible Iron Duke. At 12.50 a.m. the Iron Duke cruising at 8 knots struck her sister ship a mortal blow nearly amidships, the fog being so dense that neither ship saw each other till less than 40 yards apart, by which time it was too late to do anything. Iron Duke's ram had torn a hole 9 feet long by 3 feet wide in Vanguard's outer skin which quickly flooded the engine and boiler rooms. Water was entering at the rate of 500 gallons a minute it was clear that the ship appeared doomed. All the crew were now ferried to the Iron Duke. The fog cleared before 1.40pm.when the Captain of the Vanguard was the last to leave the ship. She had come only 18 miles from the harbour at Kingstown. At the Court Martial, Captain Dawkins of the Vanguard was severely reprimanded and dismissed from his ship, never being employed again.

I feel that the Coastguards who had trained on this modern ship, and also their families, would remember her fate, and what might have happened to them if this incident had occurred during the summer months. Its a Titanic story of sorts.