ROYAL NAVY'S WORST ACCIDENTAL EXPLOSION, HMS VANGUARD Today, 9 July in 1917, the worst accidental explosion in Royal Naval history, the destruction of HMS Vanguard.
Launched at the Vickers yard in Barrow-in-Furness on 22 February 1909, the dreadnaught battleship saw action in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, and against the German Fleet on 19 August that year.
She was anchored in Scapa Flow when a raised temperature in one of the magazines (a storage area for ammunition) caused spontaneous ignition of cordite (the propellant material for the shells).
A massive explosion wrecked the vessel, and Vanguard sunk almost immediately with the loss of 843 of her 845 man crew. Initially there were 3 survivors but Lieutenant Commander ACH Duke, later died of his injuries.
HMS Vanguard's bell was recovered last year by a team of divers after 108 years on the seabed. It will be loaned to the Scapa Flow Museum in Orkney by the National Museum of the Royal Navy, after conservation work has taken place.
Pic shows a Royal Navy diver changing the White Ensign on the wreck of HMS Vanguard in July 2017,
