On July 9th 1917 tragedy struck when the HMS Vanguard blew up in Scapa Flow with the loss of over 800 lives.
Built in 1909 this was the eighth ship to bear the name Vanguard and was part of a new generation of Dreadnought battleships.
After conducting exercises in Scapa Flow she proceeded to anchor for the evening. At 11.20pm a series of internal explosions sank the ship almost immediately. Some 843 men died. Only two men survived, although another source says three.
It was initially feared that a German U-boat had caused the disaster but an investigation determined that an accidental explosion probably caused by cordite inside the battleship’s magazines sank the ship.
101 years on it is still the worst accident in the Royal Navy’s wartime history.
On the night of the explosion, 16 of the ship’s officers were on another vessel watching a concert. Another eight ratings tasked with collecting the officers had just left the Vanguard in a small boat.
Only three men who were on-board HMS Vanguard (out of 845) survived the initial explosion, however, Lieutenant Commander Alan Duke, later died of his injuries, which is probably why the other source gave me three survivors?
The other two men, Marine J Williams and Stoker 1st Class FW Cox, miraculously survived the explosion. The men are said to have been unable to recall the disaster and described being asleep in their bunks before waking up swimming away from the battleship. Very little is known about the lives of the two sailors following the disaster.
The wreck was heavily salvaged after the war, but was eventually protected as a war grave in 1984. It was designated as a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986, and diving on the wreck is generally forbidden.
A simple Celtic Cross memorial remembers those lost that night at Lyness Naval Cemetery, Orkney there are 445 Commonwealth burials here of the First World War, 109 of which are unidentified. The majority of the graves are of officers, ratings, and members of the land forces lost from the Vanguard. It is one of the largest military graveyards in the country.
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