LOSS OF THE VANGUARD.

North Otago Times, Volume CV, Issue 13935, 18 July 1917, Page 2

LOSS OF THE VANGUARD.

, HEAV7 DEATH-ROLL. \ OYER.EK lIT HUNDRED ML\ ; .PERISH; ■ ; (F f qr Calilo—Press Association—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assicoation) LONDON; July 1G; • of H.M.S., Vanguard, which was sunk as the result of au internal FOUL PLAY SUSPECTED. s, (United Service). Received July 17,6.50 p.m. LONDON, July 16. The Standard says that a certain striking coincidence between the loss of the Vanguard and another loSs has led to strong suspicions of foul play.

The blowing up of the.Dreadnought Vanguard while anchor (says the Dunedin Star) renders it practically certain lic-r loss was not due either to torpedo or mine; while the fact that there were only three survivors shows' that the magazines exploded, Nothing but the explosion of the magazines would wipe out>a great battleship and its complement of men with such appalling suddenness and completeness. The worst, of such disasters is that they leave no hope of ever aseevtalnwg I the cause, and as there has been quite a succession of such incidents in the allied navies since the outbreak of the war an uneasy suspicion of possible treachery prevails. The pre-Dread-nought battleship Bulwark of 15,000 tons was blown up at Sheerness on November 20,1915, there being only one or 'two survivors. Eye-witnesses of the explosion declared that she was smashed into three parts, and this leaves no doubt that her magazines went, The, armoured cruiser Natal was sunk in harbour by au internal ex- ( plc-sion towards the end of the same year; and on September 30 of last year the Italian Dreadnought Benedetto Brin was blown up in harbour at Brindisi, Of course, these explosions are most probably due to some accident on board, or to the decomposition of the powder, Before the war the French navy suffered a whole series of difastrous explosions, which were finally traced to the deterioration of th<> explosives used, which made them liable to explode on the slightest shock or rise of temperature. Other nations have suffered in the same way, aSd no effort has been spared in the matter of precautionary measures, such as cooling apparatus for the magazines. But though the Bulwark, Natal, and Vanguard were all equipped with the most modern apparatus in this respect it did not save them; while if Germany has had such losses she has kept

them very dark. ' Famous Namo in British Navy.

The first-class battleship--Vanguard, which was blown up and sunk last Monday as the rqs.iflt of an internal explosion, iva s launched on February 22, 190!), at Messrs Vickers, Son, and Maxim's yards. Her keel was laid on April 2, 190S, and her launching 'weight (10,250 tons) was the greatest weight of any battleship launched up to that date. Move work probably was done on (he Vanguard.' ilian on any previous battleship at the ••time of launching. The Vanguard is a name famous in Hio nminh of the British Navy, and has boen borne\v no fewer than nine ships (including the one just lost). The lirst, built at Woolwich in loSli, was the flagship of Sir William "Wynter in ihe Battle of Gravclincs in 35SS, and subsequently became the tingship of Frobishpv. The second—a 50"tin frigate of GSO tons—was the ship in which Sir Richard Hawkyns led the expedition against Algiers in IG2I. The third made a gallant light oil Dungene/s in 1G52, when Blake was defeated by the Dutch under Troup; the fourth was in the Ba:tle of Barllenr in 1692; and the fifth took part in the expedition to Quebec in 1787, and was Nelson's flagship at the Battle of the Nile in '1798. The seventh and last fullyrigged Vanguard was built at Pembroke in 1835; she had a displacement of 35-12 tons, or less than one-fifth of that of the new Vanguard, yet her complement of 750 men was but little less than that of her modern namesake. The eighth was an ironclad steamer of GOIO tons, built in 18GS), and was lost in collision with her sister ship, Ihe Iron Duke, off the coast of Wicklow, in 1875, when she sank within an hour. 1 It is interesting to compare the Vanguard just lost with two of the previous vessels of that name which had been built for the British Navy:— Vanguard of 1835.—Length 190 ft, breadth 57£t, displacement 3512 tons, heaviest projectile 321b, complement 750 men.

Vanguard of 1869. —Length 280 ft, breadth 54ft, displacement 6010 tons, heaviest projectile 2501b, complement •181 men, •Vanguard of 1909.—Length. 500 ft, breadth 84ft, displacement 19,250 tons, heaviest projectile 8501b, complement 800 men. The 8501b shot has a striking energy about twenty times that of the 2501b shot of forty years' ago. The Vanguard. of to-day would bo able to defeat the armour fitted to any foreign ship fit a- range of 10,000 yards.