HMS Royal Oak (1892) well as the Cruiser Squadron. In April 1904, while operating with the Home Fleet off the Scilly Isles, "Royal Oak" and her sister ship "Revenge" had their bottoms lightly damaged when they struck a sunken wreck. On 9 May 1904, "Royal Oak" became flagship of the Home Fleet's second-in-command, relieving her sister "Empress of India", and took part in annual maneuvers in July and August. On 7 March 1905, "Royal Oak" paid off at Portsmouth into the Chatham Reserve, and her crew transferred to the battleship "Caesar". The following day the ship recommissioned with a skeleton crew for service with
HMS Royal Oak (08) carrying Basque child refugees, to England. In July, as the war in northern Spain flared up, "Royal Oak", along with the battleship This same period saw "Royal Oak" star alongside fourteen other Royal Navy vessels in the 1937 British film melodrama "Our Fighting Navy", the plot of which centres around a coup in the fictional South American republic of Bianco. "Royal Oak" portrays a rebel battleship "El Mirante", whose commander forces a British captain (played by Robert Douglas) into choosing between his lover and his duty. The film was poorly received by critics, but gained some redemption through its dramatic