Upon her return to Great Britain in 1872 her hull was found to be partly rotten and she was placed in reserve until she was sold for scrap in 1882.

[1] Ocean had a metacentric height of 6.01 feet (1.83 m) which meant that she rolled a lot and was an unsteady gun platform.

Ocean carried a maximum of 570 long tons (580 t) of coal,[6] enough to steam 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km; 2,300 mi) at 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph).

One small conning tower was fitted on each side of the upper deck amidships, but these proved to be untenable when the ship's guns were fired.

[11] HMS Ocean was laid down on 23 August 1860 as a wooden two-deck, 90-gun ship of the line by Devonport Dockyard.

The Admiralty ordered on 5 June 1861[12] that she be lengthened 23 feet (7.0 m), cut down one deck,[13] and converted to an armoured frigate for the price of £298,851.

[12] Ocean initially served with the Channel Fleet, but she was almost immediately transferred to the Mediterranean, and from there to the Far East; she arrived in Batavia (now Jakarta) on 15 October 1867.

[16] Ocean was relieved in turn by HMS Iron Duke in 1872, but drew too much water to pass through the Suez Canal.