:: HMS AGINCOURT (1913) ::

HMS Agincourt battleship (1913) High resolution picture

The HMS Agincourt was a British dreadnought battleship launched in 1913 and initially built for the Brazilian Navy. In that time the 305-millimeter cannon was already being phased in favor of larger calibers, but the Brazilians wanted to simplify logistics so they demanded for the project the same twin turrets adopted for the ships of the Minas Geraes class. The awkward number of turrets was another requisite set by the Brazilians, who wanted to outmatch the Argentinian battleship Moreno, armed with six twin turrets of the same caliber. This of course required a rather long hull and the level of protection was rather weak, comparable to that of the contemporary British battlecruisers.

But during a financial crisis Brazil retracted from the contract and the ship was sold to the Ottoman Empire when she was still in construction. However, with the outbreak of the First World War and the adhesion of Turkey to the Central Powers, Great Britain decided to seize the ship, even if it had been already paid. This way, the HMS Agincourt started the First World War serving with the Royal Navy in the Northern Atlantic against the German High Seas Fleet. She took part in the Battle of Jutland and survived the war, to be later decommissioned and finally scrapped in 1924 after a brief period serving as school ship.

Class: Agincourt (1 unit - Agincourt (ex Sultan Osman, ex Rio de Janeiro))

Type: Battleship

Length: 204 meters

Beam: 27.2 meters

Draught: 8.2 meters

Displacement (normal): 27940 tonnes

Propulsion: 4 x shaft, 4 steam turbine Parsons, 22 x boiler Babcock and Wilcox, 40279 horsepower

Speed: 22.42 knots (41.5 kilometers/hour)

Range: 7000 nautical miles (12964 kilometers) at 10 knots

Fuel: 1524-3250 tonnes of coal and 630 tonnes of petrol

Complement: 1115

Armament: 14 x 305-millimeter 45-caliber cannon, 20 x 152-millimeter 50-caliber cannon, 10 x 76-millimeter cannon, 3 x 533-millimeter torpedo tube

Armor: 152-229 millimeters in belt, 102-152 millimeters in ends, 38 millimeters in forecastle deck/upper deck, 25-63 millimeters in main deck, 25-38 millimeters in lower deck, 51-229 millimeters in barbettes, 203-305 millimeters in main turrets, 152 millimeters in casemates, 305 millimeters in conning tower

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