remedy defects in the original design left "the stern timbers badly arranged, weakly supported and held together with iron straps." The Symondite stern "lacked the defensive strength of the true round stern. There was simply too much glass to offer any protection to the crews of the stern battery in action." Symondite warships were very sensitive to how they were stowed. If trimmed carefully, they were fast in moderate winds, thought they did not do as well as preceding designs in head seas, or rough seas. Compared with previous designs, Symondite warships required 19% more loads of wood and 30% more man-hours to build. Some of the Symondite warships were converted to steam in the 1850s (though not Vanguard). Their 'V'-shaped hull made it difficult to add a steam engine and boilers and to store coal. The extra weight was low in the ship, exacerbating their excess stability, which made their rolling even worse than before. (In fairness, at the time they were designed, it was never anticipated that they would be converted to steam.) Service Life Vanguard was commissioned in 1837 by Captain Sir Thomas Fellowes, with the normal picked complement of officers, including Baldwin Walker as First Lieutenant and Mr Miller, one of Symonds's favourite sailing masters. The object was clear. Symonds wanted his ships to be tried by men capable of making the best of their qualities... Out in the Mediterranean Vanguard soon made a name for herself as the fastest ship in the fleet, with the handiness of a frigate when beat out of Grand Harbour [Malta].' At the end of her first three-year commission Captain Fellowes wrote that Vanguard had 'great stability' was 'very easy at sea and works less than ships of her class' and had 'great advantage in all points of sailing.' On the night of 30 January 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 Walker who reported Scott to the