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Shipwreck

HMS Vanguard

Scapa Flow, Orkney

A battleship that blew up at anchor, killing over 800.

Just before midnight on 9 July 1917, the battleship HMS Vanguard exploded at anchor in Scapa Flow, probably because unstable cordite in her magazine caught fire. Around 843 men died, and only two survived.

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Open HMS Vanguard on the mapReport a sighting here
When
9 July 1917
Where
58.8570, -3.1040
Group
Shipwrecks

Visiting

Lyness on Hoy has the Scapa Flow Museum.

Cover of Blood and Gold by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

Blood and Gold

Sixteen true stories of mutiny, mercy, treasure and the gallows from the Golden Age of Piracy: Henry Every, Bartholomew “Black Bart” Roberts, Edward England, Howell Davis, Christopher Moody, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Charles Vane, Benjamin Hornigold, Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, Israel Hands, Calico Jack, Edward Low, Captain William Kidd and Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy. Where the record is uncertain, the book says so.

Buy on AmazonAll books by Cale Mills

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