One of the officers of the _Vanguard_, in a letter to a friend, graphically described the scene at and after the collision. After having lunched, he entered the ward-room, where he encountered the surgeon, Dr. Fisher, who was reading a newspaper. “After remarking on the thickness of the fog, Fisher went to look out of one of the ports, and immediately cried out, ‘God help us! here is a ship right into us!’ We rushed on deck, and at that moment the _Iron Duke_ struck us with fearful force, spars and blocks falling about, and causing great danger to us on deck. The _Iron Duke_ then dropped astern, and was lost sight of in the fog. The water came into the engine-room in tons, stopping the engines, putting the fires out, and nearly drowning the engineers and stokers.... The ship was now reported sinking fast, although all the water-tight compartments had been closed. But in consequence of the shock, some of the water-tight doors leaked fearfully, letting water into the other parts of the ship. Minute-guns were being fired, and the boats were got out.... At this moment the _Iron Duke_ appeared, lowering her boats and sending them as fast as possible. The sight of her cheered us up, as we had been frightened that she would not find us in the fog, in spite of the guns. The scene on deck can only be realised by those who have witnessed a similar calamity. The booming of the minute-guns, the noise of the immense volume of steam rushing out of the escape-funnel, and the orders of the captain, were strangely mingled, while a voice from a boat reported how fast she was sinking.” When the vessel went down, the deck of the _Iron Duke_ was crowded with men watching the _finale_ of the catastrophe. When she was about to sink, she heeled gradually over until the whole of her enormous size to the keel was above water. Then she gradually sank, righting herself as she went down, stern first, the water being blown from hawse-holes in huge spouts by the force of the air rushing out of the ship. She then disappeared from view. The men were much saddened to see their home go down, carrying everything they possessed. They had been paid that morning, and a large number of them lost their little accumulated earnings. These were, of course, afterwards allowed them by the Admiralty. [Illustration: THE “VANGUARD” AS SHE APPEARED AT LOW WATER.] The _Vanguard_ and the _Iron Duke_ were two of a class of broadside ironclads, built with a view to general and not special utility in warfare. Their thickest armour was eight inches, a mere strip, 100 feet long by three high, and much of the visible part of them was unarmoured altogether, while below it varied from six inches to as low as three-eighths of an inch. It was only the latter thickness where the point of the _Iron Duke’s_ ram entered. Their advocates boasted that they could pass through the Suez Canal, and go anywhere.