HMS Agincourt (1913)
Article
May 17, 2022
HMS Agincourt was an ironclad ship operated by the British Royal Navy. Its construction began in September 1911, at the Armstrong Whitworth shipyards, in Newcastle upon Tyne, being launched to sea in January 1913. It was armed with a main battery composed of fourteen 305 mm cannons, mounted in seven double artillery turrets. , the most guns and turrets ever installed on any battleship in history. With a displacement of more than thirty thousand tons, she had a maximum speed of 22 knots (41 kilometers per hour). She was originally commissioned by Brazil in 1911, named "Rio de Janeiro", at the height of the South American naval arms race. However, the collapse of the rubber cycle and improved relations with Argentina caused the Brazilians to sell the vessel to the Ottoman Empire in December 1913. It was then renamed Sultân Osmân-ı Evvel and was almost complete when World War I. World War began in July 1914. The UK government seized the battleship for use by the Royal Navy, which created resentment in the Ottomans as payment for the ship had already been finalized, a fact that contributed to the Ottoman Empire's decision to join the Central Empires. The vessel was completed and renamed HMS Agincourt, being commissioned into the British fleet in August 1914, joining the Grand Fleet in the North Sea. She spent most of her wartime service on patrol missions and training exercises, but participated in mid-1916 in the Battle of Jutland against the Germans. The ship was placed in reserve in March 1919, after the end of the war, with the British government unsuccessfully trying to sell her back to Brazil. The Agincourt was eventually sold for dismantling in December 1922 to comply with the limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty, and was scrapped in 1924.