abstract
| - HMS Vigilant was a Royal Navy nuclear submarine sent to investigate strange weather patterns that had made an oil rig disappear and downed a helicopter in the North Sea. Its registry number was 517. The Fourth Doctor tried to gain access to it. He wanted to stop it because he sensed it was sailing into an alien trap. However, he was denied permission by Admiral Slingsby. Soon after launch, the ship was ripped in half and its entire crew died. (COMIC: The Sinister Sea)
- In 1920 PD, the ship was sent to the Talbott Cluster as part of the Star Kingdom of Manticore's efforts to bring stability to the region. The Vigilant was in orbit of Flax, when the heavy cruiser HMS Hexapuma entered the cluster. In early 1921 PD, Captain Aivars Terekhov made her part of his improvised squadron to investigate the secret military build-up in the Monica System. When Vigilant's commanding officer, Commander Eleanor Hope, refused to participate in the action, she was relieved of command and her first officer, Lieutenant Commander Osborne Diamond, took over as CO of Vigilant. Commander Hope returned to the Spindle System aboard a dispatch boat. Vigilant was heavily damaged in the Battle of Monica, taking a direct hit at the bridge that killed Commander Diamond and the entire bridge crew. Lieutenant Gainsworthy, the Third Engineer and senior surviving officer, assumed command and made contact with Hexapuma. Although Gainsworthy stated he and his crew could save the Vigilant, Terekhov ordered him to set the scuttling charges and abandon ship. Gainsworthy executed these orders; Vigilant was destroyed, but her name added to the List of Honor along with those of all ships in her squadron. (SI1)
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