HMS Ocean (1898) - Technical Description

Technical Description

HMS Ocean was laid down at Devonport Dockyard on 15 December 1897, launched on 5 July 1898, and completed in February 1900. She was the first large armored ship built at Devonport.

Ocean and her five sister ships were designed for service in the Far East, where the new rising power Japan was beginning to build a powerful and dangerous navy, and to be able to transit the Suez Canal. They were designed to be smaller (by about 2,000 long tons (2,000 t)), lighter, and faster than their predecessors, the Majestic-class battleships, although they were slightly longer at 430 ft (130 m). In order to save weight, Ocean carried less armour than the Majestics, although the change from Harvey armour in the Majestics to Krupp armour in Ocean meant that the loss in protection was not as great as it might have been, Krupp armour having greater protective value at a given weight than its Harvey equivalent. Still, Ocean's armour was light enough to make her almost a second-class battleship. Part of her armour scheme included the use of a special 1 in (2.5 cm) armoured deck over the belt to defend against plunging fire by howitzers that France reportedly planned to install on its ships, although this report proved to be false.

Ocean had four 12 in (300 mm)/35 cal guns mounted in twin turrets fore and aft; these guns were mounted in circular barbettes that allowed all-around loading, although at a fixed elevation. Ocean also mounted twelve 6 in (150 mm)/40 cal guns (sponson mounting allowing some of them to fire fore and aft) in addition to smaller guns, and four 18-inch (450 mm) submerged torpedo tubes.

The Canopuses were the first British battleships with water-tube boilers, which generated more power at less expense in weight compared with the cylindrical boilers used in previous ships. The new boilers led to the adoption of fore-and-aft funnels, rather than the side-by-side funnel arrangement used in may previous British battleships. The Canopuses proved to be good steamers, consuming 10 long tons (10 t) of coal per hour at full speed, with a high speed for battleships of their time, a full 2 kn (2.3 mph; 3.7 km/h) faster than the Majestics.