This photograph illustrates the WW I British dreadnought type battleship HMS Vanguard (the eighth Royal Navy ship to bear this name).  The photograph is dated 1910. This photograph is from the I.N.R.O. Archives. Vanguard was a member of the St. Vincent Class which also included the Collingwood. This class of ships was considered to be simply an enlarged version of the Téméraires Class ships. Vanguard was built by Vickers at Barrow, and was laid down in April of 1908, launched in 1909 & completed in February 1910.  Vanguard’s main fuel was coal but had facilities for using oil as a fuel for propulsion. The ship was propelled by steam turbines driving 4 screws which gave a speed of about 21 knots. The vessel had a normal displacement of 19,250 tons (sources differ slightly) and a complement of 670 crew members (war time complement is given as 823). Length (at waterline) was 530 feet, beam was 84, and the draft was 28 feet. Armament was: 10 - 12 inch in twin mounts 18 -   4 inch   4 -   3 pounder   3 -   3 submerged torpedoes tubes (2 broadside & 1 stern). Note in the photo that the fore funnel was conspicuously smaller than the aft funnel. Also note the extreme height of the masts; this was usual for ships of this period and was needed to aid radio communications. At the start of WW I the ship became a member of the First Battle Squadron which was stationed at Scapa Flow. During assignment to Scapa Flow, the Grand Fleet undertook a number of practice runs in the North Sea, working on improving gunnery and seamanship. Vanguard participated in the Battle of Jutland as part of the Fourth Battle Squadron.  She fought from the start of the action to the very end and did not suffer any damage or casualties. Shortly before midnight on 9 July 1917, the silence of Scapa Flow was destroyed by a series of magazine explosions aboard Vanguard. The vessel sank in a matter of seconds! Only several members of the 800+ men aboard the ship survived (sources differ as to the exact number of crew members that lost their lives). The ship is designated as a War Grave. Were the explosions an accident or sabotage? Investigation by the Royal Navy has never provided a definitive answer to the question. To this day, the exact cause of the sinking remains a mystery!