File:Court-Martial on the Officers of HMS Vanguard. - ILN-1875-0925-0001.jpg

English: Court-Martial on the Officers of HMS Vanguard, held on board her Majesty's ship Royal Adelaide, the flag-ship at Devonport. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 25 September 1875.

The loss of HMS Vanguard, 1 September 1875, rammed by HMS Iron Duke off Dublin.
Read the ILN

THE LOSS OF THE VANGUARD. The naval court-martial to inquire as to the conduct of Captain Richard Dawkins, Lieutenant Hathorn, Navigating Lieutenant Thomas, and the other officers and crew of her Majesty's ship Vanguard, sunk in the Irish Channel by the Iron Duke, a ship of the same squadron, has been continued from day to day. It has been held on board her Majesty's ship Royal Adelaide, the flag-ship at Devonport; and our Illustration shows the scene in Court during the examination of Vice-Admiral Sir J. W. Tarleton, C.B., who commanded the squadron in the Irish Sea. The members of the Court are seated along both side of the table. At the head of the table, which is overlooked by a marble bust of her Majesty the Queen, sits the president, Admiral Lord John lay, C.B.; on his right hand is Rear-Admiral Chamberlain, superintendent at Devonport. Captain C. W. Hope is at the president's" left hand: the others are Captains Oldfield, Lethbridge, Ward, Edye, Parkin, and Heneage. Admiral Sir J. W. Tarleton stands in the foreground, looking down at Mr. Eastlake, the Judge-Advocate, or legal assessor of the Court. Farther towards the left-hand side of the Engraving, at a separate table, sits Captain Dawkins, with Mr. Lishman, a paymaster of the Royal Navy, who assists hint during the proceedings ; but he has no advocate, counsel, or solicitor for his legal defender. The officers seated on chairs to the right of Captain Dawkins, and more in the foreground of our Illustration, are Navigating Lieutenant Thomas and Lieutenant Hathorn. In the background, behind the rail or bar, are the newspaper reporters, and the sailors and marines in attendance. We also give, in our two-page Engraving, a view of the scene at the wreck of the Vanguard, where the operations are still carried on from day to day, so far as the state of the weather and sea permits. This Illustration is from a sketch by Captain S. P. Oliver, of the Royal Artillery. The gun-boats Orwell and Goshawk, the Carron steam-tug, and the Amelia screw-tender, with several "lumps," have been kept near the wreck. The removal of the fore-yard, cut adrift to be towed off by the Amelia, is the work shown in our Illustration. The fore and maintop masts are ready for lifting. The lower masts are tubular iron, and a wrapping will have to be fixed round them, as near the deck as possible, and four sheared blocks strapped on them. A tackle will be rigged on the shears in the lumps, and the rope or chain passed down from the head block to a block made fast on the deck of the lumps; and this passed on to two tugs, the Carron and another. If this fails to hoist the masts out of their cast-iron sockets it is hoped that they may be able to snap them across close to the decks. The divers report the whole ground adjacent to the wreck to be full of chains, cables, sails, hawsers, and wire rigging, so that descent is extremely dangerous. They know not the moment when they may come foul of something below, and even if they bring down knives or hatchets these are of no use to cut away such rigging. On some days last week the swell and currents were so great that nothing could be done, the men being swept away in the strong eddy. The 12-ton guns, which are in the lower deck or plated battery, were put into their places before the battery deck was constructed. This is composed of eighteen heavy iron beams, over which are placed transverse plates and wrought-iron stringers. Over these the metal or iron deck was placed, this being secured by rivets and screws to the iron beams, and the top planked with oak, over which was elm scantling. This was the spar-deck of the battery, which was shell-proof. Its strength is immense, and before any of the large guns can be recovered, this deck must be blown up. It has been fancied that the guns could be got up through the mainmast space, but it must be remembered that the Vanguard lies at an angle of one foot in three, and that this is a very considerable "heel." If ever the lashings were to be cut the guns (weighing with the carriages some fifteen tons each) would rush down the incline with fearful velocity, to the certain destruction of any diver who got foul of them. The sand is silting around the hull, and ere autumn is closed the equinoctial gales, which rage with intensity on the east coast of Ireland, will firmly imbed her. The hole in her side is just abaft and under the coiner of the port battery. From the necessarily hurried examinations (on account of the great depth) which have been made, this rent seems to be vertically fifteen feet in height, and is described as pear shaped, being four feet wide at the centre, coming from an inverted oval to a point about only forty inches wide. The ship lies on the starboard bilge. The decision of the Admiralty will be in no slight degree influenced by the views of the Board of Trade, and if the latter body desire immediate removal, it, as a matter of course, must be done.