HMS Royal Oak (1892) relieved by the battleship "Bulwark" and departed the Mediterranean in May 1902. She arrived at Plymouth on 16 May, and at Portsmouth the following day, and paid off there on 6 June 1902. She soon moved to Chatham Dockyard for a refit, during which casemates were provided for her six-inch upper deck guns. On 16 February 1903, "Royal Oak" recommissioned at Portsmouth for service in the Home Fleet using part of the battleship "Nile"'s crew as a nucleus. In the summer of 1903, she participated in combined exercises in the Atlantic involving the Home Fleet, Mediterranean, and Channel Fleets, as
Royal Oak Major and Colonel. Careless suggested that the house was unsafe and recommended that the king hide in an oak tree in the woodlands surrounding Boscobel House. The king and Careless took some food and drink and they spent all day hiding in a pollarded oak tree which became known as the Royal Oak. From the oak they could see patrols of Parliamentary soldiers searching for the king. Later Charles spent the night hiding in one of Boscobel's Priest holes. He was then moved from Boscobel to Moseley Old Hall, another Catholic redoubt near Wolverhampton, and ultimately escaped the region posing