There is probably no reasonable being in or out of the navy who does not believe that the ironclad is the war-vessel of the immediate future. But that a woeful amount of uncertainty, as thick as the fog in which the _Vanguard_ went down, envelops the subject in many ways, is most certain. The circumstances connected with that great disaster are still in the memory of the public, and were simple and distinct enough. During the last week of August, 1875, the reserve squadron of the Channel Fleet, comprising the _Warrior_, _Achilles_, _Hector_, _Iron Duke_, and _Vanguard_, with Vice-Admiral Sir W. Tarleton’s yacht _Hawk_, had been stationed at Kingstown. At half-past ten on the morning of the 1st of September they got into line for the purpose of proceeding to Queenstown, Cork. Off the Irish lightship, which floats at sea, six miles off Kingstown, the _Achilles_ hoisted her ensign to say farewell—her destination being Liverpool. The sea was moderate, but a fog came on and increased in density every moment. Half an hour after noon, the “look-out” could not distinguish fifty yards ahead, and the officers on the bridge could not see the bowsprit. The ships had been proceeding at the rate of twelve or fourteen knots, but their speed had been reduced when the fog came on, and they were running at not more than half the former speed. The _Vanguard_ watch reported a sail ahead, and the helm was put hard aport to prevent running it down. The _Iron Duke_ was then following close in the wake of the _Vanguard_, and the action of the latter simply brought them closer, and presented a broadside to the former, which, unaware of any change, had continued her course. The commander of the _Iron Duke_, Captain Hickley, who was on the bridge at the time, saw the spectre form of the _Vanguard_ through the fog, and ordered his engines to be reversed, but it was too late. The ram of the _Iron Duke_ struck the _Vanguard_ below the armour-plates, on the port side, abreast of the engine-room. The rent made was very large—amounting, as the divers afterwards found, to four feet in width—and the water poured into the hold in torrents. It might be only a matter of minutes before she should go down.(52) [Illustration: THE LOSS OF THE “VANGUARD.”]