HMS Ocean (1898)

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HMS Ocean (1898)

Career
Builder:	Devonport Dockyard
Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched:	5 July 1898
Commissioned:
Fate:	Sunk by mine, in Naval operations in the Dardanelles Champaign on 18 March 1915
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	12,950 tons
Length:	430 ft (131.1 m)
Beam:	74 ft (22.6 m)
Draught:	26 ft (7.9 m)
Propulsion:	2 shafts, water tube boilers, vertical triple expansion steam engines, 15,400 ihp
Speed:	18 kt
Range:
Complement:	750
Armament:	four 12 inch and twelve six-inch guns, 10-3 in guns, 4-18 in TT (sub)
Aircraft:	None
Motto:

The fourth HMS Ocean was a battleship displacing 12,950 tons and armed with four 12 inch and twelve six-inch guns. She was launched in 1898, designed to be able to transit the Suez Canal. From the Mediterranean Station she transferred to the China Station in 1901 before paying off in 1905 and becoming part of the Chatham Reserve. In 1906 she joined the China Fleet and returned to the Mediterranean in 1908. In 1910 she returned home and joined the Fourth Division of the Home Fleet.

Two months after the outbreak of World War I she was dispatched to the East Indies for the protection of the Persian Gulf convoys. In early February 1915 she aided the defence of the Suez Canal against the Turks and then sailed to take part in naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign. She became part of a squadron comprising HM Ships Albion, Irresistible, Majestic, Triumph, and Vengeance, which from March 1, 1915 bombarded various forts and strait defences. On March 18, after standing by the disabled Irresistible, Ocean herself struck a mine and was almost simultaneously crippled by shelling. She sank that night.