HMS Ocean (1805)
The second HMS Ocean, 98 was launched in 1805 from Woolwich just three days after the Battle of Trafalgar. She was a second rate of 2291 tons and from 1806 served for three years as Vice Admiral Lord Collingwood's flagship in the Mediterranean.
In 1806, under the command of Captain R. Thomas, Ocean blockaded
Cadiz. A squadron under Admiral Purvis took over the blockade when Lord Collingwood sailed for the Dardanelles with a diplomatic mission under Sir Arthur Paget. France and Russia had signed a peace treaty in July 1806 but the Russian Vice Admiral Seniavin fought on in the Adriatic. An expedition under Vice Admiral Duckworth attacked Constantinople in an attempt to capture the Turkish fleet at the beginning of 1807 but withdrew after losing 29 killed and 235 wounded. He refused to join Seniavin in another attempt and sailed for Egypt to capture Alexandria on March 22. Seniavin fought a battle with the Turks at Lemnos on June 19.
At the end of August Ocean, Queen,
Repulse, Canopus,
Montague, Malta,
Hind, Herald,
Philomel, Delight, and
Electra were lying at anchor off the Straits.
Kent was surveying Skiro and
Seahorse was at Paros to see if either were fit
for shelter for the squadron.
Sir Arthur Paget's mission to secure the return of Seniavin to the
Black Sea failed when the Porte refused to listen to any propositions
unless the Royal Navy left the Archipelago and the army quit Egypt. Meanwhile Russia and France had signed the Treaty of Tilsit which Collingwood understood to mean that the Russian ships would come under French control so he escorted Seniavin from Corfu to the Straits of Gibraltar, being prepared to destroy them rather than let them fall into enemy hands. The Russians had to put into Lisbon where they were eventually taken into British custody.
Ocean was back off Cadiz in the spring of 1808 as the flagship of
Lord Collingwood. In July he was able to report that all the French forces
in Andalusia had surrendered and more than 20,000 men had either been
killed or taken prisoner. In December Ocean was with the squadron off
Toulon so that Lord Collingood could control the operations on the coast of Spain and the defence of the citadel of Rosas.
In 1817 the ship was reclassified as a 110-gun First Rate. She was
retained on the Lisbon and Mediterranean stations until 1830.
In 1827, under the command of Captain Patrick Campbell, Ocean
served as a guard-ship at Plymouth and then withdrew the British troops from Portugal. She was later with the Mediterranean squadron until paid off on May 15, 1830. After that, she served variously as harbour duty flagship and guardship at Sheerness until 1848 when she became Flagship, Nore.
In 1852 Ocean became a coal depot ship and was finally broken up in 1875.
See HMS Ocean for other Navy ships of the same name.
Parts of this page © Crown Copyright 2003, used with permission.
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Referenced By
HMS Ocean
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