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The fourth HMS ''Ocean'' was a ''Canopus''-class battleship of the British Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1900, she entered service with the Mediterranean Fleet until January 1901, when she was transferred to the China Station. She was recalled from China in 1905 for service with the Channel Fleet after a period spent in reserve. From 1908 to early 1910, she was again assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet. By now outclassed by the emergence of the dreadnoughts, she was assigned to the Home Fleet. Assigned to the 8th Battle Squadron following the outbreak of World War I, ''Ocean'' was involved in operations around Ireland. She also escorted troop convoys from India and assisted in the defence of the Suez Canal. In 1915, she was involved in the Dardanelles Campaign. On 18 March, she attempted to retrieve HMS ''Irresistible'', which had been badly damaged by a mine in Erenkui Bay, but had to abandon her salvage efforts due to heavy Turkish gunfire. She instead evacuated the surviving crew of ''Irresistible'' but struck a mine while making for the open sea. Badly damaged, her crew and the survivors of ''Irresistible'' were taken off by destroyers and ''Ocean'' left to sink in Morto Bay. ==Technical description== HMS ''Ocean'' was laid down at Devonport Dockyard on 15 December 1897, launched on 5 July 1898, and completed in early 1900.〔Burt, p. 141〕 She was the first large armoured 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 ), lighter, and faster than their predecessors, the ''Majestic''-class battleships, although they were slightly longer at . To save weight, ''Ocean'' carried less armour than the ''Majestic''s, although the change from Harvey armour in the ''Majestic''s 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 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 /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 /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.〔''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905'', p. 35, 36; Gibbons, p. 145〕 The ''Canopus''es 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 many previous British battleships. The ''Canopus''es proved to be good steamers, consuming of coal per hour at full speed,〔Gibbons, p. 145〕 with a high speed for battleships of their time, a full faster than the ''Majestic''s.〔''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905'', p. 35; Gibbons, p. 145〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMS Ocean (1898)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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