HMS Agincourt was a British dreadnought built with more turreted heavy guns (fourteen) and more main turrets (seven) than any other battleship, before or since. Originally ordered by Brazil during a South American naval arms race, the ship was purchased from Brazil by the Ottoman Empire while under construction and renamed Sultan Osman I, after the empire's founder. When the dreadnought was nearly complete, World War I broke out. The British Admiralty, fearing an Ottoman–German alliance, seized the ship for the Royal Navy, together with another Ottoman dreadnought being built in Britain, the Reşadiye. This act contributed to the decision of the Ottoman government to join the Central Powers, as the payments for both ships were complete. The renamed Agincourt joined the Grand Fleet in the North Sea and, apart from the Battle of Jutland in 1916, spent most of the war on patrols and exercises. The dreadnought was put into reserve in 1919 and—after abortive attempts to sell the ship back to Brazil—was sold for scrap in 1922 to comply with the Washington Naval Treaty. (Full article...)
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