Research puts Vanguard loss at 843
By Brian Flett
(From The Orcadian dated July 11, 2002)

A photograph of the dreadnought battleship HMS Vanguard which blew up while at anchor off Flotta around 11.30pm on July 9, 1917, with the loss of 843 men, ten more than went down aboard HMS Royal Oak when it was torpedoed by a German submarine, U-47, early in World War Two. (Picture: Orkney Library Photo Archive)

This week marks the 85th anniversary of the sinking of the British battleship HMS Vanguard while at anchor in Scapa Flow, just north of Flotta.

Just before midnight on Monday, July 9, 1917, the St Vincent class battleship suddenly blew up, killing more than 800 men.

Indeed, from detailed scrutiny of naval records and war graves, it is now believed that the loss of HMS Vanguard resulted in a greater loss of life than the sinking of HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow by a German submarine, U-47, some 22 years later.

Meticulous research into the World War One naval tragedy has been carried out by a number of military historians and amateur enthusiasts, including Brian Budge from Kirkwall. He and a fellow enthusiast, Jonathan Saunders from Gillingham in Kent, physically visited all the war memorials where men from HMS Vanguard were listed and counted the names and cross-checked that against the Admiralty records for the crew who should have been aboard the ship on that fateful summer night which was reported to have been “quiet”.

Based on the registers for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorials in Chatham, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Lyness, and subsequent information from colleagues around the world via the Internet, Brian Budge has come up with a figure of 843 sailors who were fatal casualties as a result of the loss of HMS Vanguard – ten more than the official number who were killed when the HMS Royal Oak sank.

The two-metre high Celtic Cross in Lyness Cemetery commemorating those who lost their lives on board HMS Vanguard on July 9, 1917. (Picture: Brian Budge)

The vast majority of Vanguard’s crew are recorded on the register for Chatham, where 622 names are remembered. Some 126 are listed on the Portsmouth register, with a further 74 in Plymouth. Only 18 of HMS Vanguard’s crew, including two officers, were buried in the Lyness Cemetery. There were known to have been two stokers from the Royal Australian Navy sent to the British battleship’s cells and also on board an observer from the Imperial Japanese Navy, Commander Kyosuke Eto. A photograph still exists of the Japanese liaison officer being greeted by King George V on board a ship in Scapa Flow just a fortnight before HMS Vanguard blew up.

The loss of the Vanguard is believed to have been caused by an explosion in one of the two munition magazines which served the amidships turrets.

Although no formal cause for the cordite explosion was ever found by the Court of Inquiry which was convened into such a major disaster, the most likely explanation is that a fire in a coal bunker or other neighbouring area smouldered away undetected long enough to heat the cordite stored at an adjoining bulkhead to dangerous levels, eventually triggering an explosive reaction.

Eyewitness accounts of the incident described seeing a bright flash or flame, followed by two heavy explosions and then a third, smaller one.

One of those who saw the events of July 9, 1917, unfold was Signalman Charles Mynott aboard HMS Marlborough.

“I was on watch between 8pm and midnight and was facing HMS Vanguard and saw her start to explode, first aft, two amidships, three foc’sle and then one huge explosion. I awoke the signal boatswain who was asleep on the bridge.”

The general public had to wait 18 months for the war to be over and censorship restrictions to be lifted before they could learn more of the tragedy

The Orcadian’s Flotta correspondent gave his account of what he had seen more than a year earlier: “First there was a V-shaped column of flame between sea and sky, then a frightful detonation, then the spreading over the great harbour of innumerable blazing fragments of everything combustible, then the smoke and glare arising from our own hill of Golta, off which the doomed ship had been lying and the heather on which had been set on fire.”

Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Beatty, wrote a letter to his wife, two days after the loss of HMS Vanguard.

He said: “A terrible calamity has befallen us and one of my fine old battleships blew up at anchor at 11.30pm, Monday night – the poor old Vanguard with over 1,000 men on board, in 25 seconds it was all over.

The section of Lyness Cemetery with the rows of graves for the sailors and two officers from HMS Vanguard. (Picture: Brian Budge)

“The explosion was terrific, two men and an officer were picked up, and the latter died soon after. Luckily, 15 officers were out of the ship on board another at the time. A boat’s crew was away and three officers and 50 odd men had been sent away on leave to make room for Admiral Sturdee and his staff who were going to Vanguard while his ship, the Hercules, was undergoing a refit.

But fortunately for him and his staff I sent them on leave instead, or else he and his staff would have been among the victims. It is an overwhelming blow and fairly stuns one to think about. One expects these things to happen when in the heat of battle, but when lying peacefully at anchor it is very much more terrible.”

The graves of the sailors from HMS Vanguard who are buried in Lyness are grouped together in two main rows, with the two officers, Lieutenant-Commander Albert Charles Henderson Duke and Midshipman Arthur Wellesley Alister Wilson, just behind.

The tragedy is highlighted at the Scapa Flow Visitor Centre and Museum at Lyness. One of the battleship’s portholes is on display there, along with photographs of the two men who survived the explosion.

Although salvage work was allowed for several years on HMS Vanguard, the remains of the ship still lie in around 108 feet of water, to the north of the Golta peninsula in Flotta, which is now earmarked for the proposed container trans-shipment hub for Scapa Flow.