HMS Victor Emmanuel (1855)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Repulse.

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
Victor Emmanuel Hospital Ship; patients relaxing along bird cage walk

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]

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

Preceded by Royal Navy receiving ship in Hong Kong
1873–1899 		Succeeded by