HMS Victor Emmanuel

HMS Victor Emmanuel was a 91-gun second rate steam and sail-powered built for the Royal Navy during the 1850s. Completed in 1858, she initially served with the Channel Squadron and then with the Mediterranean Fleet. The ship was sold for scrap in 1899.

Description

The ships of the line were built in response to the perceived threat from France by the construction of the Napoléon class battleships. Victor Emmanuel measured on the gundeck and on the keel. She had a beam of, a depth of hold of, a deep draught of and had a tonnage of 3085 tons burthen. The ship was fitted with a two-cylinder, single-expansion steam engine built by Maudslay, Sons and Field that was rated at 600 nominal horsepower and drove a single propeller shaft. Her boilers provided enough steam to give the engine that was good for a speed of. Her crew numbered 860 officers and ratings.
The ship's muzzle-loading, smoothbore armament consisted of thirty-four shell guns on her lower gundeck and thirty-four 32-pounder (56 cwt) guns on her upper gundeck. Between her forecastle and quarterdeck, she carried twenty-two 32-pounder guns and a single 68-pounder gun.

The Agamemnons were originally designed as 80-gun sailing two-deckers, but the design was revised in 1850 to incorporate more guns and steam power.
Victor Emmanuel was ordered on 4 April 1851 as a 91-gun second rate under the name Repulse and was laid down at Pembroke Dock on 16 May 1853. The ship was launched on 27 February 1855, but was renamed Victor Emmanuel on 7 December, in honour of Victor Emmanuel after he visited the ship. She was commissioned on 27 July 1858 under the command of Captain James Willcox and completed on 9 September.
Victor Emmanuel was initially assigned to the Channel Squadron, but was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in March 1859. On 4 May 1861, the ship ran aground on the Leufchino Shoal, in the Mediterranean Sea. Repairs cost £69. Her armament was reduced to 79 guns during this deployment; she was paid off at Portsmouth on 6 May 1862. Victor Emmanuel was recommissioned on 20 November 1873 to serve as a hospital ship at Cape Coast Castle during the Anglo-Ashanti wars. She was assigned to Hong Kong to replace HMS Princess Charlotte as the receiving ship there from on 11 December 1874. She was sold in 1899.