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 held the distinction of mounting
more heavy guns (fourteen) and more turrets (seven) than any other dreadnought
battleship constructed, in keeping with the Brazilians' requirement for an
especially impressive design.
Brazil ordered the ship as Rio de Janeiro
from the British Armstrong Whitworth shipyard, but the collapse of the rubber
boom and a warming in relations with the country's chief rival, Argentina, 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. The ship was nearly
complete when World War I broke out, and British Admiralty fears of a
German–Ottoman alliance led to her seizure for use by the Royal Navy. This act
was a major contributor to the decision of the Ottoman Empire to support
Germany in the war. Renamed Agincourt by the British, she joined the Grand
Fleet in the North Sea. The ship spent the bulk of her time during the war 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.
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