HMS Agincourt (1913)

Agincourt in 1915
History
Brazil
NameRio de Janeiro
NamesakeRio de Janeiro
BuilderArmstrong, Newcastle upon Tyne
Cost$14,500,000 (estimated)[1]
Yard number792
Laid down14 September 1911
Launched22 January 1913
FateSold December 1913 to the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
NameSultan Osman-ı Evvel
NamesakeSultan Osman I
AcquiredDecember 1913
FateSeized in August 1914 by the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
NameAgincourt
NamesakeThe Battle of Agincourt of 1415
Cost£2,900,000 (estimated)[2]
Completed20 August 1914
Acquired3 August 1914
Commissioned7 August 1914
DecommissionedApril 1921
Nickname(s)Gin Palace
FateSold for scrap, 19 December 1922
General characteristics (in British service)
TypeDreadnought battleship
Displacement
Length671 ft 6 in (204.7 m)
Beam89 ft (27.1 m)
Draught29 ft 10 in (9.1 m)
Installed power
Propulsion4 × shafts; 4 × steam turbines
Speed22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph)
Range7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement1268 (1917)
Armament
Armour

HMS Agincourt was a dreadnought battleship built in the United Kingdom in the early 1910s. Originally part of Brazil's role in a South American naval arms race, she holds the distinction of mounting more heavy guns (fourteen) and more turrets (seven) than any other dreadnought battleship, in keeping with the Brazilians' requirement for an especially impressive design.

Brazil ordered the ship in 1911 as Rio de Janeiro from the British company Armstrong Whitworth. However, the collapse of Brazil's rubber boom and a warming in relations with Argentina, the country's chief rival, led to the ship's sale while under construction to the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans renamed her Sultan Osman I, after the empire's founder, and the ship was nearly complete when the First World War broke out. The British government seized her for use by the Royal Navy, together with another Ottoman dreadnought being constructed in Britain. This act caused resentment in the Ottoman Empire, as the payments for both ships were complete, and contributed to the decision of the Ottoman government to join the Central Powers.

Renamed Agincourt by the Royal Navy, she joined the Grand Fleet in the North Sea. During the war, the ship spent the bulk of her time on patrols and exercises, although she did participate in the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Agincourt was put into reserve in 1919 and sold for scrap in 1922 to meet the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.

  1. ^ "Brazil's 32,000-Ton Dreadnought," Bulletin of the International Bureau of the American Republics 31, no. 1 (July 1910): 515.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference b45 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).