 On 9 October 1959 the Admiralty announced that Vanguard would be scrapped , as she was considered obsolete and too expensive to maintain . She was decommissioned on 7 June 1960 and sold to the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain for £ 560 @,@ 000 . On 4 August 1960 , when the ship was scheduled to be towed from Portsmouth to the breaker 's yard at Faslane , Scotland , the whole of the Southsea sea front was packed with people who came to see her off . As Vanguard was being towed towards the harbour entrance , she slewed across the harbour and ran aground near the Still & West pub . She was pulled off by five tugboats an hour later , and made her final exit from Portsmouth . Five days later she arrived at Faslane , and by mid @-@ 1962 the demolition process was complete ; she was the last British battleship to be scrapped . 
