HMS Vanguard

“ In a few minutes, every man stationed at the first six guns in the fore part of the Vanguard's deck, was down, killed or wounded, and one gun in particular was repeatedly cleared: one of the midshipmen was just remarking the escapes he had experienced, when a shot came, and cut him in two. At about seven o'clock, total darkness had come on; but the whole hemisphere was, at intervals, illuminated by the fire of the hostile fleets. Our ships, as darkness came on, had all hoisted their distinguishing lights, by a signal from the admiral. ”

“ Of masts and funnels there was no sign, and only two turrets, minus roofs and guns, were found at some distance from the rest of the debris. It was discovered that all magazines except one had blown up.
There was universal rejoicing when some two weeks after the tragic end of the luckless Vanguard, and about a week after the conclusion of exams., the whole Fleet moved to another base. Here we were much more in touch with civilization, for a large town [115] with quite respectable shops was within reach. ”

“ On the basis that Howard with the Royal Navy was in the Downs, and Drake with a fleet chiefly of privateers in the west, the Armada was tactically organized in three main divisions. At its head sailed the vessels of Portugal and Castille in one squadron under Medina Sidonia and Diego de Valdes. The position of the galleasses is a little uncertain. It297 has been thought that they sailed separately with the chief flagships; but they are generally found acting together. Behind this vanguard was the Light Division, and behind it again the urcas. ”

“ Early in 1789, Sir Horatio Nelson hoisted his flag in the Vanguard, and left England to rejoin Earl St. Vincent. He was dispatched to the Mediterranean, to ascertain the object of Bonaparte's great expedition, then fitting out at Toulon; and sailed from Gibraltar on May 9 with three ships of the line, four frigates, and a sloop. The Vanguard was dismantled in a storm, but was refitted in the Sardinian harbour of St. Pietro, and was joined by a reinforcement of eleven ships from Earl St. ”

“ The whole nation will rejoice that so great a peril has passed for the vanguard of the men who will fight our battles in France.”
This incident illustrates the method of protection chiefly employed by the British Navy. When the original Expeditionary Force was sent to France, the Grand Fleet was in readiness if the High Sea Fleet should venture to issue to sea. Cruisers, destroyers, naval aircraft, and submarines were on watch and guard in the North Sea and the Channel, and the patrol was maintained, day and night, without intermission until the army had been effectively transported. ”

“ On the 21st the Vanguard was dismasted in a north-westerly gale, which had begun to blow on the 19th, and was compelled to anchor to refit at San Pietro in Sardinia. His ships had been seen at a distance by the French in Toulon, but they put to sea on the 19th by favour of the north-west wind which drove him off. The armament consisted of twelve sail of the line under Admiral Brueys d’Aigalliers, an officer of the old French royal corps. The warships were crowded with Napoleon’s troops, and accompanied by transports. ”

“ It was only in the matter of displacement that these three ships showed any difference from those of the Vanguard class; there were no great innovations either in armament or armor. But in the same year, 1911, there were launched the Thunderer, Monarch, Orion, and Conqueror, each of 22,500 tons, and equipped with armor from 8 to 12 inches thick, for the days of 3-inch armor on first-class warships had gone forever. These had a speed of 21 knots, and were the first British ships to have anything greater than a 12-inch gun. ”

“ The panting of the men grew louder; still I felt that we might cope with the vanguard, if we gained the air ship first, although conscious that the race would be a severe one. Moreover, in those few seconds of intervening time I calculated every chance, and weighed to a nicety how much of our advantage would be lost in boarding the vessel, hauling in the ladder, and getting under weigh. The ship had always responded promptly to the touch of the button, but now I was full of the gravest misgivings, knowing that the slightest hitch would undo us. ”

“ Vincent, completed in 1909, and her sisters the Vanguard and Collingwood, completed in 1910, are 500 feet in length by 84 feet beam, and have a displacement of 19,250 tons, and engines of 25,400 h.p.; [Pg 318] their armoured belt is 93⁄4 inches thick amidships, tapering fore and aft to 61⁄2 inches, while the armour of the barbettes is 11 inches in thickness, and the protective deck is 23⁄4 inches. They have the same number of big guns and torpedo tubes, but the number of the 4-inch anti-torpedo guns was increased to twenty, and they also had six Maxims. ”

“ Vandongen, captain of Revolutionnaire, killed, 311 Vanguard, dismasted in gale, 389 La Hogue, 37 [522] Nelson’s flagship at battle of Nile, 388 et seq. taken by Nelson to Naples, 401 Vannes, in Morbihan, French troops collected at, 184 Vansittart, Nicholas, Lord Bexley, envoy to Denmark, 424 Vanstabel, Admiral, and the grain convoy, 305 brings convoy to Brest, 322 French Rear-Admiral, escapes from Howe, 300 Rear-Admiral, brings home convoy, 314 Vaubois, General, surrenders Malta, 413 Vaudreuil, Comte de, killed in action of 14th Oct. ”

“ An amphibious operation is a vastly complicated affair, particularly when the forces involved are assembled on short notice from all over the Pacific. The pressure that Vandegrift felt was not unique to the landing force commander. The U.S. Navy’s ships were the key to success and they were scarce and invaluable. Although4 the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway had badly damaged the Japanese fleet’s offensive capabilities and crippled its carrier forces, enemy naval aircraft could fight as well ashore as afloat and enemy warships were still numerous and lethal. ”

“ II, Part I, Note † at p. 58, et seq. ↑ The Repulse and Vanguard had formerly been small brigs, but were cut down and converted into prames, for the purpose of acting against the enemy’s flotilla. The latter vessel mounted two 26 and two 12-pounders. Twelve gun-boats, on a new construction, sent from England in frames at the commencement of 1782, and put together at the rock, proved highly useful to the garrison during the latter part of the siege. ”

“ Aft, on the quarter-deck, marines were going through the rifle gymnastic drill. In some of the divisions officers and men were busy at the big gun drills. Others were cleaning a ship that always seemed spotless. The few that were off duty gathered wherever they could find room, for a battleship at sea, with her full complement of officers and men on board, is a crowded affair.
No other ship of the American fleet was in sight, but two operators, constantly on duty in the wireless room, kept the "Long Island" in constant touch with a score of vessels of the United States Navy. ”

“ In addition to doing signally effective work in hunting down the submarine, and in protecting ocean commerce, our war-ships have relieved England and France of the necessity of looking out for raiders and submarines in South Atlantic waters: we have sent to the Grand Fleet, among other craft, a squadron of dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts whose aggregate gun-power will tell whenever the German sea-fighters decide to risk battle in the North Sea ”

“ One of the first acts of the war, before sending a vessel to the Mediterranean or increasing the Channel fleet, was to despatch a squadron of seven sail-of-the-line to the West Indies, where there were at that time, except a few small cruisers, but two fifty-gun ships, one at Jamaica and one to windward,—a thousand miles apart. No fact shows more strongly how unprepared Great Britain was for war than the naval destitution of this region, at a time when France had three or four ships-of-the-line continually in her colonies. ”

“ Never, on any account, are ships to be hazarded against superior force, or, in other words, the ships of the "admiral of the Atlantic" are not to fight unless in very superior force to their antagonists, as was the case in the action off Chile. The German squadron, starting out on the second raid on our coasts, no sooner clapped eyes on Admiral Beatty's ships—which only numbered one more ship than the German squadron—than it turned tail and made off for all it was worth. So the British had no chance of crossing the "T", or of any manœuvre other than a stern chase. ”

“ Not far from the city water front lay two United States gunboats, the "Chelsea" and the "Oakland." Near the gunboats a fleet of seven other submarine craft lay at moorings.
"We're not the only crowd, then," mused Jacob Farnum, "that has seen fit to enter more than one boat. I shall have to get busy in the hunt for information."
"I'm not much worried about the triumph of the Pollard boats over competitors," declared Danvers, generously. "And, if anything can win for you, Mr. Farnum, it's the having of such enthusiasts as your submarine boys to handle your boats in the official tests." ”

“ It is undoubtedly true, my lords, that many of our merchant ships have been taken by the enemy; but it is not certain that they do not murmur equally that they have been obstructed in their commerce, and have been so little able to interrupt ours, since they have so many advantages from the situation of their coasts. When we reckon those that are lost, let us not forget to number those that have escaped. If admiral Vernon's fleet was ill provided with arms and ammunition, even then, let all censure be suspended till it can be proved that it was ill furnished by the fault of the ministry. ”

“ As a result of these conflicting reports, two American fleets were reduced to impotence. The "flying squadron" of fast cruisers under Commodore Schley was kept for weeks at moorings in Hampton Roads ready to be dispatched for protection of our northern coasts, while the squadron of battle-ships under Admiral Sampson was made to steam hither and yon in the Caribbean Sea looking for an enemy's fleet which much of the time lay snugly on the other side of the Atlantic. Accordingly, up to June 15, the results of naval operations in West Indian waters were almost nil. ”

“ Let the mainsail be hauled up and the topsail brought to the mast. If she be the enemy her flag denotes, her temper will not be sweetened by a long pursuit of which the issue is clear."
Van Vogelaar, scowling venomously, seemed to hang in the wind, on which Vanderdecken looked at him with an expression of face incredibly fierce and terrible. ”

“ The officer had made too free with the liquor and imagined that the boat was cut off and that the natives were about to attack the ship. He had the guns all loaded and was running about the deck like a madman, cursing and abusing everyone. Though nothing serious happened, the captain was careful how he left him in future.
While here, two Ambow chiefs brought off 30 hogs to sell. Capt. Vandaford bought them on condition that they should take them on shore and keep them until he wanted them, when he would pay them two muskets. To this they assented and took them ashore. ”

“ Captain Vansittart on this occasion exhibited a noble spirit of disinterestedness, by destroying the whole of those valuable prizes, in order that the convoy might not be detained, although the Spaniards offered to bring off from the shore in the course of twelve hours a sum sufficient to ransom them. A few days after this event, he obtained intelligence that six French ships of the line were cruising to intercept the homeward bound fleet; this squadron was subsequently seen, but successfully avoided through the able management of Captain Bligh and his brother officers. ”

“ The first security for British merchant ships must be the superiority of the British Navy which should enable us to cover in peace, and hunt down and bring to battle in war, every enemy’s warship which attempts to keep the seas. ”

“ A more important victory than that of Sir John Jarvis (created in consequence Earl St. Vincent) was never gained at sea, from the evident superiority of skill and seamanship which it demonstrated in the British navy. The battle of St. Vincent disconcerted the plans of Truguet for the naval campaign; but later in the season a second attempt to reach Brest was made by a Dutch fleet of 15 sail of the line and 11 frigates, under the command of De Winter, a man of tried courage and experience. The British blockading fleet, under Admiral Duncan, consisted of 16 ships and 3 frigates ”

“ Warren's impressions of the serious nature of the opening conflict caused a correspondence between him and the Admiralty somewhat controversial in tone. Ten days after his arrival he represented the reduced state of the squadron: "The war assumes a new, as well as more active and inveterate aspect than heretofore." Alarming reports were being received as to the number of ships of twenty-two to thirty-two guns fitting out in American ports, and he mentions as significant that the commission of a privateer officer, taken in a recaptured vessel, bore the number 318. ”

“ Professor Hosmer (Life of Sir H. Vane the Younger, p. 497) says that Vane, ‘had created the fleet out of nothing, had given it guns and men.’ He appears to think that a naval force, with its subsidiary manufactures and establishments, could be created in a few years, but, as a matter of fact, Parliament commenced the struggle infinitely better equipped at sea than on land, and it was so powerful afloat that it did not find it necessary to begin building again till 1646, when the result of the struggle was assured. ”

“ A considerable flotilla was preparing at San-Lucar; and the seamen originally trained to gun-boat service at Boulogne, and who had been employed on the Danube, in 1809, had already arrived to assist in the reduction of Cadiz. Eleven or twelve British and Spanish line-of-battle ships were lying as near to the city as the depth of water would admit; and at least 300 merchant vessels, of different nations, were crowded together between them and the shore. The enemy’s batteries in the neighbourhood of Matagorda were daily exchanging shot and shells with Fort Puntales ”