HMS Victor Emmanuel (1855)

History
UK
Name:	HMS Victor Emmanuel
Ordered:	4 April 1851
Builder:	Pembroke Dockyard Machinery by Maudslay, Sons & Field
Laid down:	16 May 1853
Launched:	27 February 1855
Commissioned:	9 September 1858
Renamed:	Launched as HMS Repulse Renamed HMS Victor Emmanuel on 7 December 1855
Reclassified:	Hospital and receiving ship from 1873
Fate:	Sold in 1899
General characteristics [1]
Class & type:	Agamemnon-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	3,074 tons
Length:	230 ft (70 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	55 ft 4 in (16.87 m)
Depth of hold:	24 ft 6 in (7.47 m)
Propulsion:	Sails 2-cyl. horizontal single expansion engines Single screw 600 nhp 2,424 ihp
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Speed:	10.674kts (machinery)
Complement:	860
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

She served in the English Channel, the Mediterranean, and off the African coast during the Anglo-Ashanti wars.^[3] 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. Lyon & Winfield. The Sail and Steam Navy List. pp. Chap. 5, pp. 5–6.
3. Loney. "mid-Victorian RN vessels - Victor Emmanuel".

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
• Lyon, David and Winfield, Rif, The Sail and Steam Navy List, All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815-1889, pub Chatham, 2004, ISBN 1-86176-032-9
• Victor Emmanuel's career