Océan (ship, 1868)

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The Océan

The Océan was a wooden French armored frigate and type ship of the class of the same name. During the Franco-Prussian War it was the strongest unit in the French Navy and was used in the Baltic Sea to block the north German coasts.

Technical specifications

  • Type of ship: tank frigate
  • Builder: Arsenal Brest
  • Keel laying: April 18, 1865
  • Launched: October 15, 1868
  • Commissioning: July 21, 1870
  • Size: 7750 t
  • Length: 87.73 m
  • Width: 17.52 m
  • Draft: 9.09 m
  • Drive: steam engine , sails
  • Screws: 1
  • Power: 3780–4180 hp
  • Masts: 3 ( Bark )
  • Speed: 13-14 knots
  • Armor: 150–203 mm
  • Armament: 4 × 24.0 cm guns, 4 × 19.4 cm guns, 4 × 16.4 cm guns
  • Crew: 750 men

history

Launch of the Océan

The Océan class was designed by the engineer Henri Dupuy de Lôme , who also designed the La Gloire . The Océan was the lead ship of the class and was launched in 1868. It was obviously only put into service because of the impending Franco-German War. On July 24, 1870 left the so-called Baltic Squadron ( squadron de la Baltique ) under Vice Admiral Louis Edouard Bouet-Willaumez , flagship Surveillante , Cherbourg . The association arrived in the North Sea on July 29, 1870 . Instead of 14 ironclads as planned , it originally consisted of 7 units:

The French Baltic Sea squadron with the tank frigates Océan and Surveillante as well as the ram Rochambeau (from left)
  • Surveillante (tank frigate, flagship)
  • Gauloise (armored frigate)
  • Guyenne (armored frigate)
  • Flandre (armored frigate)
  • Océan
  • Thetis (tank corvette )
  • Jeanne d´Arc (armored corvette)
  • Cassard ( Aviso )

After the ram Rochambeau had arrived in the Baltic Sea, the Flandre and the Océan returned to France. The Flandre had an engine failure and the Océan had proven unsuitable for operations in the Baltic Sea due to its great draft. On September 16, 1870, the Océan returned to Cherbourg. Presumably from November 23rd she belonged to the newly established Escadre du Nord stationed there .

Océan

The frigate served in the so-called evolutionary squadron until 1875, after which it was transferred to the reserve. In 1879 she was reintegrated into the active fleet and served on the Mediterranean station. In 1884/85 the Océan was completely overhauled and served in the Northern Fleet ( Escadre du Nord ) until 1888 , then again in the Mediterranean.

1891 the frigate was short again transferred to the reserve, but in the same year first as artillery training ship and later as a cabin boy training ship used. In 1895 she was decommissioned; the final fate is unknown.

Sister ships

Marengo and Suffren .

literature

  • René de Pont-Jest: Les escadres françaises dans la Mer du Nord et la Baltique , Paris (Hachette) 1871. German edition: The campaign of 1870 in the North and Baltic Seas. With a map of the Jade-Weser and Elbe estuaries , Bremen (Heyse) 1871.
  • Robert Gardiner: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905 , Greenwich (Conways's) 1979.
  • Albert Röhr: Handbook of German Navy History , Oldenburg / Hamburg (Gerhard Stalling) 1963.
  • Wolfgang Petter: German fleet armor from Wallenstein to Tirpitz. In: Military History Research Office (ed.): German military history in six volumes 1648–1939 , Bd. V, Herrsching 1983, pp. 3–262. ISBN 3-88199-112-3
  • Clas Broder Hansen: Germany will become a sea power. The construction of the Imperial Navy 1867–1880 , Graefelfing before Munich 1991. ISBN 3-924896-23-2
  • Geoffrey Wawro : The Franco-Prussian War. The German Conquest of France in 1870-1871 , Cambridge (Cambridge University Press) 2003. ISBN 0-521-58436-1
  • Hans Otto Steinmetz: In the shadow of the army and big politics. A consideration of the use of the Prussian-German Navy in the war of 1870/71. In: Marine-Rundschau , Volume 70, year 1973, pp. 212-229.
  • Hans-Justus Kreker: The French Navy in the War of 1870/71 , in: Marine-Rundschau , Volume 70, year 1973, pp. 276–286.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kreker, p. 281.
  2. ↑ Kreker, p. 284.