HMS Vanguard with the Type 15 frigates HMS Venus, Virago and Verulam at Gibraltar in 1953. There are three carriers visible in the distance and the tower of another directly behind Vanguard, behind which was another. HMS Vanguard with the Type 15 frigates Venus, Virago and Verulam at Gibraltar in 1953. Type 15 were a class of anti-submarine frigates. They were conversions based on the hulls of World War II-era destroyers built to the standard War Emergency Programme "utility" design.