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Lot Essay
Built during the Seven Years' War (1756-63), the lines of H.M.S. Ocean were adapted from Surveyor Slade's 1755 design for H.M.S. Sandwich and she was ordered on 22nd April 1758. Once sufficient timber had been assembled, Ocean's keel was laid in Chatham dockyard on 4th August the same year and she was launched on 21st April 1761. A fine and well-proportioned second rate mounting 90 guns, she was measured by her builder at 1,827 tons and was 176 feet in length with a 49 foot beam. Her armament consisted of 28-32pounder guns, 30-18pdrs., 30-12pdrs. and 2-6pdrs. and, when fully crewed, she carried a complement of 750 officers and men.
Although completed whilst England was still embroiled in the Seven Years' War, Ocean's first battle experience was not until the American War of Independence which began in 1775. Before long, France and Spain had allied themselves to the United States in the hope of territorial gain at England's expense with the result that the conflict, initially confined to the Americas, spread nearer to home. On 27th July 1778, Admiral [later Viscount] Keppel - having sailed from Spithead on the 9th - brought a large French fleet under the Comte D'Orvilliers to action off Ushant with H.M.S. Ocean amongst the thirty ships-of-the-line under his overall command. Ocean herself was in the rear division, under Vice-Admiral Palliser, and although the battle proved indecisive, Ocean was heavily involved in the affray as her captain was subsequently one of the principal witnesses in Keppel's celebrated court-martial for alleged negligence.
The winter of 1781 again found Ocean off Ushant where, on 12th December, she was one of Rear-Admiral Kempenfelt's squadron which sighted a large French convoy outward bound for the West Indies under the protection of a powerful escorting force. Seizing the opportunity afforded by the escort's poor positioning, Kempenfelt swooped down upon the convoy whilst the French ships of war remained helpless spectators. In a brilliant manoeuvre, fifteen prizes laden with stores of great value and immense importance to the French war effort were captured whilst those ships which managed to escape were so badly mauled by an ensuing storm that the remainder of the convoy was practically annihilated. Late the next year, in what was almost the last action of the War, Ocean was amongst Admiral Lord Howe's fleet which defeated a combined Franco-Spanish fleet off Cape Spartel on 20th October 1782 during the operations to relieve Gibraltar. Laid up when peace came, Ocean saw little further service and was broken up after a relatively short life in 1791.
Since no member of the Fitzwilliam, Rockingham or Watson-Wentworth families served as a naval officer during the American War, it is intriguing to speculate how this painting came into the collection formerly hung at Wentworth Woodhouse. On the basis of the above information however, it has been suggested that the work was commissioned originally by Admiral Keppel to commemorate his exoneration and acquittal from the 1778 court-martial at which the favourable evidence provided by H.M.S. Ocean's commander, Captain Laforey, had proved crucial. When, in March 1782, Keppel was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty in the new though short-lived Government of his friend and supporter Charles Watson-Wentworth, second Marquis of Rockingham [Prime Minister, March-July 1782], it seems entirely plausible that Keppel might have given this picture of Ocean to the Marquis as a gesture of thanks for his patronage and in whose family it thereafter remained.
Although completed whilst England was still embroiled in the Seven Years' War, Ocean's first battle experience was not until the American War of Independence which began in 1775. Before long, France and Spain had allied themselves to the United States in the hope of territorial gain at England's expense with the result that the conflict, initially confined to the Americas, spread nearer to home. On 27
The winter of 1781 again found Ocean off Ushant where, on 12
Since no member of the Fitzwilliam, Rockingham or Watson-Wentworth families served as a naval officer during the American War, it is intriguing to speculate how this painting came into the collection formerly hung at Wentworth Woodhouse. On the basis of the above information however, it has been suggested that the work was commissioned originally by Admiral Keppel to commemorate his exoneration and acquittal from the 1778 court-martial at which the favourable evidence provided by H.M.S. Ocean's commander, Captain Laforey, had proved crucial. When, in March 1782, Keppel was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty in the new though short-lived Government of his friend and supporter Charles Watson-Wentworth, second Marquis of Rockingham [Prime Minister, March-July 1782], it seems entirely plausible that Keppel might have given this picture of Ocean to the Marquis as a gesture of thanks for his patronage and in whose family it thereafter remained.