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HMS Vengeance is the youngest of the four Vanguard-class nuclear submarines. Together with her three sister vessels, she carries the United Kingdom’s strategic nuclear deterrent.
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As the fourth and final of the Vanguard-class, HMS Vengeance’s role is to carry the Trident ballistic missile system. Equipped with thermonuclear warheads, these missiles deter the most extreme threats to the UK’s national security.
Little is known about HMS Vengeance’s day-to-day activities since her role is, by its very nature, a secretive one. With constant power and the ability to produce her own water and oxygen, HMS Vengeance’s patrols could, in theory, last for years at a time.
In 2012, HMS Vengeance underwent a 40-month refit in order to refuel her reactor and update her electronics and machinery.
The first Vengeance was a 28-gun sixth rate frigate, captured by HMS Hussar from the French off the Lizard in February 1758. She fought in one of the key battles in the Seven Years War with France.
The first Vengeance was sunk in October 1766 as a breakwater off Plymouth.
Around the turn of the 19th century three Vengeances existed concurrently. A 74-gun third rate ship of the line was the first, launched in June 1774. She was converted to a prison ship in 1808.
The fourth Vengeance, a fourth rate 50-gun, had been captured in the Mona Passage, in August 1800. She was damaged when stranded in 1801.
The longest-serving Vengeance was number five, a second rate 84-gun, which commissioned at Pembroke in July 1824. She was finally sold in May 1897, having won a battle honour in the Crimean War.
The sixth Vengeance was a 13,000-ton Canopus-class pre-Dreadnought battleship launched at Vickers at Barrow in July 1899. She served in home waters and on the China Station before the First World War.
The sixth Vengeance won the Dardanelles battle honour in 1915, and also served off Africa. By the end of the war she had been used for experimental gunnery duties and as an ammunition store ship.
Vengeance number six was sold for scrap in December 1921; while on tow to Dover, her towline parted and she disappeared briefly in the Channel, until tugs found her and resumed her final passage.
The seventh HMS Vengeance was a Colossus-class light fleet carrier which entered service at the end of the Second World War. She witnessed the surrender of Hong Kong in September 1945, and was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy 1952-55.
Vengeance number seven was sold to Brazil in 1956, re-commissioned in 1960 as the Minas Gerais, and served until 2001, when she was the last of her type still in service.
The eighth and current HMS Vengeance was launched in September 1998. She was the fourth and final Vanguard-class nuclear-powered submarine.
Efforts were made by ex-Service associations to preserve this last World War Two-era carrier as a memorial ship, but sufficient funds could not be raised. She was sold for scrapping in India in 2004.
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