Some ships are thought to be unlucky by the men who sail in them, exactly how they become unlucky is unknown to anyone, perhaps they are just born unlucky. November 24, 1885 was a cold, rainy, miserable day, not the kind of day that one would choose to spend outside unless there was a very important reason for doing so. In Portsmouth, England the important reason was the launch of a new battleship, Camperdown. She was the heaviest ship launched to date at the yard and there were a few problems.

She was to be christened by Lady George Hamilton, wife of the First Lord of the Admiralty, but the death of the Marquis of Abercorn precluded her from attending so Mrs. W. H. Smith stood in for her ladyship. The launching was to take place at noon, but when the keel blocks were being removed those amidships were stuck fast and the ceremony had to wait until high tide and even with that the blocks had to be sawed through to be sure Camperdown would not get hung up on them. At almost 1 p.m. Mrs. Smith broke the bottle of colonial wine on the bows and in the rain the hull of Camperdown slid into the water.

Another unlucky event involving HMS Camperdown occurred on June 22, 1893 when during a fleet maneuver she rammed and sank HMS Victoria. Camperdown, unlucky or not, was scrapped in 1911.