HMS Ocean (1862)

HMS "Ocean" was the last of the Royal Navy's "Prince Consort" class battleships to be completed.

In common with her sisters, HMS "Prince Consort" and "Caledonia" and her half-sister "Royal Oak" she was originally laid down as a 91-gun second-rate line-of-battle ship, and was converted during construction to an armoured frigate. The appellation "frigate" relates to the number of guns carried, and is a hold-over from the rating system employed in the Napoleonic era; she would, of course, have been more than a match for any non-armoured ship-of-the-line of any nationality.

ervice history

She was initially commissioned at Devonport for service with the Channel Fleet, which at that time was the usual first commission of a Royal Navy battleship. She was, however, immediately transferred to the Mediterranean, and from there to the Far East Fleet; she arrived in Batavia (now Jakarta) on 27 October 1867. She was the only armoured ship ever to double the Cape of Good Hope under canvas alone.

She served on the China Station between 1867 and 1872 without once docking, and returned home thereafter under steam at an average rate of 4.5 knots (8.3 km/h). She was held in dockyard reserve until sold.Between commissioning and the end of her sea-going career, she never anchored in British waters.

"Ocean" holds a record in having sailed 453 nautical miles (839 km) on 26 August 1867 with cold boilers on her trip from Gibraltar to Hong Kong, the greatest distance ever covered under sail power only by a British ironclad.

She carried no saluting guns, which meant that she had to use her main armament for this purpose on ceremonial occasions; it is reported that this could be overpowering in enclosed harbours.

References

* Oscar Parkes "British Battleships" ISBN 0-85052-604-3
* Conway "All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905" ISBN 0-85177-133-5