The Ships of Brawling Battleships Steel: Great Britain Battleship Agincourt

Laid down on September 14, 1911, launched on January 22, 1913 and commissioned on August 20, 1914, Agincourt carried an unprecedented main armament of fourteen centerline 12 inch main guns mounted two per turret; two centerline superfiring forward, two centerline superfiring aft and three centerline amidships that could fire to both sides. Originally laid down as the Rio de Janeiro for Brazil in Britain, the Brazilian government decided that 12 inch guns were too small for the South American naval arms race by 1913 and sold the ship in a semi-finished condition to Turkey as the Sultan Osman I. With World War threatening, the British government confiscated the ship on August 2, 1914 and completed the ship as the Agincourt. A handsome ship, she was the only ship of her battleship class and was turbine powered with coal-fired boilers. The name commemorated Henry V’s famous victory in 1415 and had a long history of use for capital ships in the Royal Navy. Scuttlebutt had it that if she fired all seven turrets to the same side that she would capsize but this was just a rumor. Spending the entire war with the Grand Fleet, Agincourt took part in the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1916, was unscathed and scored hits on the Markgraf and Kaiser . Placed in reserve in 1919, she was unsuccessfully offered for resale to Brazil. This unusual ship was sold to the breakers on December 19, 1922.

See other battleships: Yavuz Sultan Selim, Sao Paulo, Canada