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Somerset, England - 18th November 2002
Log of HMS Ocean - January 15th 1901 to October 1st 1902
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The last two months at Oldnautibits have been
busy as we continue to travel further and look harder to source
stock. We are always on the lookout for "named" items, particularly
if they come with historical interest. We are therefore very
excited to have obtained a ship's Log Book, for the period January
1901 - October 1902, relating to the Royal Naval vessel HMS
Ocean.
HMS Ocean was laid down in 1898, and was a first class battleship
of 12,950 tons displacement. She was of the Canopus class and
her armament consisted of four 12" and twelve 6" guns. She was
built in the United Kingdom in the Thomas Ironworks.
G S Benning wrote our Log. We have yet to research him, but
believe he could have been the ship's Gunnery Officer. The Log
entries provide a daily record of the routine events on board.
They cover the ship's progress from Malta, through the Mediterranean
to the Suez Canal, then down via the Red Sea to the China Station.
To give a flavour we detail these excerpts:-
Sunday 3rd February
1901
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| Vessel at sea. Wind
from South East force 2-3. Barometric pressure 30.18".
Temperature 67 F, Sea Temperature 59 F. |
| 0715 |
Slipped buoys 2 and 2A Grand
harbour, Valetta, Malta. Proceeded out of harbour. |
| 0730 |
Course south 65 degrees east. |
| 1050 |
Held a memorial service for our
late Sovereign Lady Queen Victoria. Fired 21 guns.
Hand make and mend clothes. |
| 2140 |
Latitude by Polarus 35 degrees,
5'30" north.
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Monday 6th May 1901
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| 0530 |
Lit fires and hoisted out the
Number 1 steam pinnace. |
| 0800 |
Dressed ship in honour of the
birthday of Her Imperial Sovereign the Tsarina of
Russia. |
| 0900 |
Exercised net defence. Fired
a Royal salute of 21 guns.
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On the 21st September 1901 we read that HMS Ocean ran down a
Chinese Junk that was sailing without lights off Hong Kong (no
mention of casualties!). The day-to-day, matter of fact, reports
are brought to life with a wide variety of charts and drawings
(many in full colour) illustrating parts of the ship, with an
emphasis on the ship's gunnery. It is this bias which leads
us to speculate that Benning may have been the Gunnery Officer.
Another significant historical event is recorded in 1901:-
Wednesday 7th August
1901
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At Wei Hei Wei at
10 o'clock we half masted colours with German ensign
at main. Half mast on account of the death of H.I.M.
the Emperor Frederick of Germany.
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The last entry in our Log is for September 30th 1902. The remaining
pages are blank, so we wonder what happened to Benning while
his ship continued service with the Royal Navy. We have established
that HMS Ocean met with a violent end during World War I, but
we still have to research her intervening years.
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The Dardanelles Campaign
 The
aim of The Dardanelles Campaign of 1915 was to force the Turks
to seek an armistice. Then, with Turkey out of the war, a vital
sea route to Russia would have been opened. To achieve this
objective the Royal Navy had to eliminate the heavily fortified
Turkish shore positions that guarded The Narrows so that they
could enter the Sea of Marmara and proceed to Constantinople.
The first phase of the Campaign was completed using the heavy
guns of the battleships, which were supported by three cruisers,
sixteen destroyers, six submarines and four seaplanes! The shore
positions were successfully destroyed; the next phase was to
sweep The Narrows for mines. The operation did not go well as
the Turks had brought in mobile gun batteries and searchlights
- the minesweepers were forced to retreat.
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18th March 1915 the entire squadron re-entered the Straits -
the batteries were once again silenced. The French battleship
Bouvet then hit a drifting mine and sank within three minutes,
losing 640 members of her crew. The Turks, elated by their success,
released more mines and scored a further hit on the cruiser
Irresistible, which started to drift towards the enemy shore.
HMS Ocean took Irresistible in tow, but she also hit a mine
and both ships were lost in deep water. The Dardanelles Campaign
ended in complete failure after two further ships, Gaulois and
Inflexible, were badly damaged.
Having enjoyed thirteen years in service, the rusting remains
of HMS Ocean now lie in a watery grave off the southern shore
of The Narrows, just to the south of the wreck of HMS Irresistible,
who she was trying to rescue. We have no trace of G S Benning,
but at least we do have his meticulously written Log Book to
remind us of a period in HMS Ocean's history - exactly 100 years
ago.
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Is the Log Book for Sale?
We always have difficulty in parting with our more unique items.
This was most certainly the case with HMS Ocean's fascinating
Log Book - after spending many hours studying the contents,
we have now sold it on to a new home.
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