HMS Ocean (1898)
|
|
|---|---|
.jpg) HMS Ocean |
|
| Overview | |
| Type | Ship of the line |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | February 15, 1897 |
| Launch | July 5, 1898 |
| Commissioning | February 20, 1900 |
| Whereabouts | March 18, 1915 by a mine in the Dardanelles dropped |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
12,950 ts , |
| length |
131.5 m (431 ft) |
| width |
22.6 m (74 ft) |
| Draft |
7.9 m (26 ft) |
| crew |
750 men (peace) |
| drive | |
| speed |
18 kn , 19.18 kn upon acceptance |
| Range |
?? sm at ?? kn |
| Armament |
|
| Fuel supply |
?? t coal |
| Belt armor |
152 mm (6 in) |
| deck |
25–52 mm (1–2 in) |
| Armored bulkheads |
151-254 mm (6-10 in) |
| Towers |
203 mm (8 in) |
| Barbeds |
305 mm (12 in) |
| Casemates |
152 mm (6 in) |
| Command tower |
305 mm (12 in) |
The fourth HMS Ocean was a Canopus -class liner of the British Royal Navy . She was the first ship of the line to be built at Devonport State Shipyard and launched there in 1898. The ships had been developed for the Far East and after a short service with the Mediterranean Fleet they came into service at the China Station . It was part of the reserve since 1910 and was reactivated at the beginning of the war. In action against Turkey since autumn 1914, on March 18, 1915, she was involved in an attempt by the Allied fleet to force the passage through the Dardanelles . While retreating, she was hit by a mine and lost. The destroyers escorted to save the crew except for one man.
The ships of the line of the Canopus class
The six ships were designed by Sir William Henry White . They were intended for use in the Far East. At the time of their construction, Russia and Japan were beginning to build a powerful and potentially dangerous fleet in East Asia, although the Japanese fleet was largely built in the UK. The ships had to be able to cross the Suez Canal . They were lighter (approx. 2000 tons ), faster and slightly longer than their Majestic- class predecessors . To save weight, the armor was reduced. Due to the lighter armor, they were initially classified as second-class battleships. Only in the case of the last ship of the class, the HMS Vengeance , was the loss of protection due to the use of the more modern Krupp armor less than the numerical reduction in armor thickness would have suggested. Part of the armor was a novel armored deck, one to two inches thick above the belt armor . This armored deck should protect against steep fire from howitzers . According to reports, France planned to install howitzers on warships, but ultimately those reports were found to be false.
Construction and operational history of the HMS Ocean
The HMS Ocean , launched as the fourth ship of the class , put into service on February 20, 1900 in Devonport as the third ship and then served in the Mediterranean fleet together with the type ship HMS Canopus . In January 1901 she moved to China Station, where she stayed until 1905. Up to five ships of the class were in use there. When the Ocean arrived, the sister ships HMS Goliath , HMS Glory and HMS Albion were already in use there. In September 1902, the Ocean was damaged in a typhoon and had to be repaired until 1903.
When the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was agreed between Great Britain and Japan in 1905, the Royal Navy reduced its presence at the China Station and withdrew all ships of the line. On June 7, 1905, Ocean and the liner HMS Centurion left Hong Kong and sailed for Singapore , where they met the sister ships of the Ocean , HMS Albion and HMS Vengeance , with whom they continued the voyage home on June 20, 1905. The four ships of the line reached Plymouth on August 2nd . Ocean went in reserve in Chatham Dockyard for a scheduled repair, since her withdrawal from China was planned anyway, and her sister ship Goliath had already been on the march to Colombo at the time of the reorganization .
On January 2, 1906, the Ocean was taken back into service for the Channel Fleet, where it was used together with the sister ships Albion , Canopus and Vengeance . In the months of January to March 1907 and April to June 1908 it was overhauled in Chatham. After the second overhaul, she came back into service for the Mediterranean fleet, where the sister ships Canopus and Glory were also used. During this time, the Royal Navy fleets usually had ships of the line of various classes.
During an overhaul in Malta in the winter of 1908 to 1909, a modern fire control system was installed.
On February 16, 1910, the Ocean was assigned to the 4th Division of the newly organized Home Fleet , to which all six Canopus- class ships were gradually assigned and served for reservist training. During this time until the outbreak of World War I , the Ocean was overhauled in Chatham in 1910 and 1911 to 1912. From 1913 she was stationed , like her sister ships Canopus , Albion and Goliath , in Pembroke Dock , Wales , as part of the 3rd (reserve) fleet.
War effort
When the First World War broke out, the Ocean and her five sister ships formed the 8th battle squadron in the Canal Fleet . On August 14, 1914, the Ocean was ready for use.
_forward_guns.jpg)
On August 21, she was sent to Queenstown , Ireland , to serve as a guard ship and to support the cruisers operating in this area. In September 1914, she was sent to the Cape Verde - Canary Islands station to replace the sister ship Albion . While on the march, the destination was changed and she should then go to the East Indies Station to help the cruisers there protect convoy trains in the Middle East. In October 1914, she accompanied the transport of Indian troops to Bahrain and was then the flagship of the units deployed in the Persian Gulf against Basra from October to December 1914 .
In December 1914 the Ocean moved to Suez . It was anchored on December 29th at the southern exit of the Suez Canal and stayed there until mid-January 1915, when it was moved north. On the night of February 3rd to 4th, she supported the ground troops in repelling a Turkish attack on the canal.
At the end of February 1915, the Ocean moved to the Dardanelles . On March 1, she and others bombed the forts at the outer entrance of the strait and were hit by the mobile Turkish coastal artillery batteries, but suffered no significant damage. On March 4, she supported the landings of British troops at Sedd el Bahr . On March 18, the Ocean participated with the sister ships Albion and Vengeance in the attack on the inner forts and the unsuccessful attempt of the Allied fleet to force the breakthrough through the Dardanelles.
After the sinking of the Bouvet after a (not recognized) mine hit, the liner Irresistible also ran into a mine in the Bay of Erenkui while retreating . Destroyers largely evacuated the stranded ship. Only the commander stayed on board with some volunteers to help rescue the ship. The ocean was ordered to tow the Irresistible . She ran aground in the shallow water of the bay, but was able to free herself. However, it proved impossible to tow the Irresistible because of its now strong list and the heavy defensive fire from the Turks. Ocean therefore only took over the remaining crew and left the Irresistible to its fate.
Loss of the ocean
During the further retreat with Irresistible's survivors on board, the Ocean ran into a mine at 7:00 p.m. Her rudder blocked on “hard port”, she had significant water ingress and after a short time she list 15 ° to starboard. To do this, she was shot at from the coast and suffered hits that put the starboard engine out of action and prevented repairs. The heavily damaged ship was therefore abandoned around 7:30 p.m. after the destroyer accompanying the crew had rescued the crew. Despite the severe damage, there was only one fatality.
HMS Ocean drifted into Morto Bay , was fired further and sank there unobserved by the Allies around 10:30 p.m. Irresistible also sank shortly after 7:30 p.m.
So that the ships of the line could not fall into the hands of the Turks, the Allied High Command sent the destroyer HMS Jed into the bay during the night to sink both ships with torpedoes. He couldn't find anything of the ships that had since sunk.
literature
- Raymond A. Burt: British Battleships 1889-1904. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 1988, ISBN 0-85368-914-8 .
- Roger Chesneau, Eugene M. Kolesnik (Ed.): Warships of the world 1860 to 1905. Volume 1: Great Britain and Germany. Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1983, ISBN 3-7637-5402-4 .
- James J. Colledge, Ben Warlow: Ships of the Royal Navy. The complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th century to the present. Chatham, London 2006, ISBN 1-86176-281-X .
- Randal Gray (Ed.): Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships, 1906-1921. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 1986, ISBN 0-87021-907-3 .
- Randolph Pears: British Battleships 1892-1957. Putnam, London 1957, (Facsimile edition. Godfrey Cave Assoc., London 1979, ISBN 0-906223-14-8 ).
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ Pears, pp. 20 f.
- ^ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905. P. 35.
- ↑ Burt, p. 97
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Burt, p. 156.
- ↑ a b c Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921. P. 8
- ^ RN Casuality list
- ↑ Burt, p. 174
- ↑ Burt, pp. 156, 174