Victor Emmanuel, receiving-ship. British squadron China Station, 1897
History
Royal Navy EnsignUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Victor Emmanuel
Ordered4 April 1851
Builder
  • Pembroke Dockyard
  • Machinery by Maudslay, Sons & Field
Laid down16 May 1853
Launched27 February 1855
Commissioned9 September 1858
Renamed
  • Launched as HMS Repulse
  • Renamed HMS Victor Emmanuel on 7 December 1855
ReclassifiedHospital and receiving ship from 1873
FateSold in 1899
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeAgamemnon-class ship of the line
Tons burthen3,074 bm
Length230 ft (70 m) (gundeck)
Beam55 ft 4 in (16.87 m)
Depth of hold24 ft 6 in (7.47 m)
Propulsion
  • Sails
  • 2-cyl. horizontal single expansion engines
  • Single screw
  • 600 nhp
  • 2,424 ihp
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Speed10.674kts (machinery)
Complement860
Armament
  • (as planned) 80 guns:
  • Lower deck: 36 × 8in guns
  • Upper gundeck: 34 × 32pdrs + 2 × 8in guns
  • Quarterdeck/Forecastle: 2 × 8in + 8 × 10in
  • (as completed) 91 guns:
  • Lower deck: 36 × 8in guns
  • Upper gundeck: 34 × 32pdrs
  • Quarterdeck/Forecastle: 20 × 32pdrs + 1 × 68 pdr

HMS Victor Emmanuel was a screw-propelled 91-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, originally launched as HMS Repulse, but renamed shortly after being launched.

Construction and commissioning

Victor Emmanuel was an Agamemnon-class ship of the line, a class originally designed as 80-gun sailing two-deckers.[2] They were re-ordered as screw ships in 1849, and Victor Emmanuel was duly reclassified as a 91-gun ship on 26 March 1852.[2] She was built and launched on 27 February 1855 under the name HMS Repulse, but was renamed Victor Emmanuel on 7 December 1855, in honour of Victor Emmanuel after he visited the ship.[3] She cost a total of £158,086, with £87,597 spent on her hull, and a further £35,588 spent on her machinery.[2]

Career

The Victor Emmanuel Hospital Ship; doctors checking on their patients

She served in the English Channel, the Mediterranean, and off the African coast during the Anglo-Ashanti wars.[3] On 4 May 1861, Victor Emmanuel ran aground on the Leufchino Shoal, in the Mediterranean Sea. Repairs cost £69.[4] She was assigned to Hong Kong to replace HMS Princess Charlotte and used as a hospital and receiving ship there from 1873. She was sold in 1899.[2]

Victor Emmanuel Hospital Ship; patients relaxing along bird cage walk

Notes

  1. ^ Lavery, Ships of the Line, vol. 1, p. 187.
  2. ^ a b c d Lyon & Winfield. The Sail and Steam Navy List. pp. Chap. 5, pp. 5–6.
  3. ^ a b Loney. "mid-Victorian RN vessels - Victor Emmanuel".
  4. ^ "Naval Disasters Since 1860". Hampshire Telegraph. No. 4250. Portsmouth. 10 May 1873.

References

External links

Preceded byHMS Princess Charlotte Royal Navy receiving ship in Hong Kong 1873–1899 Succeeded byHMS Tamar
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1861
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