HMS Vanguard (1835)
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The sixth HMS Vanguard, of the British Royal Navy was a 78-gun second-rate ship of the line, built in 1835 at Pembroke Dock. She saw little action in her career, but one moment of controversy stands out of her record.
On the night of January 30, 1838, Vanguard was at Malta under the command of Captain Sir Thomas Fellowes. The ship's First Lieutenant, C.M.M. Wright, ordered the Assistant Surgeon, Robert Thomas Charles Scott, to stomach-pump a drunken seaman. Scott expressed the medical opinion that a stomach-pump should not be administered. Wright ordered him to give it anyway as a punishment and reminded Scott that it was an order he had received. A short while later Wright ordered Scott to do the same to another seaman. The next morning Scott reported the matter to Commander Baldwin Wake Walker who reported Scott to the Captain for disrespect and disobedience of a lawful order. Captain Fellowes threatened Scott with a court martial and reported him to Sir William Burnett, the Physician-General of the Navy. When this affair became public knowledge, an Admiralty Order was issued banning the use of a stomach-pump as a punishment.
Vanguard was renamed Ajax in 1867, to allow her former name to be given to an ironclad battleship then being laid down in the ways. Ajax (ex-Vanguard) was broken up in 1875.
General Characteristics
- Displacement: 2,609 tons
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