HMS Agincourt (1913) - Construction and Seizure

Construction and Seizure

Rio de Janeiro, as Agincourt was named by her first owners, was laid down on 14 September 1911 by Armstrongs in Newcastle upon Tyne and launched on 22 January 1913. After the keel-laying the Brazilian government found itself in an unenviable position: a European depression after the end of the Second Balkan War in August 1913 reduced Brazil's ability to obtain foreign loans, while at the same time Brazil's coffee and rubber exports collapsed, the latter due to the loss of the Brazilian rubber monopoly to British plantations in the Far East. In addition, reports on new dreadnought construction coming in from overseas indicated that their vessel would be outclassed upon completion. These factors caused the Brazilians to put the ship up for sale in October 1913, and they sold her to the Ottoman Navy for £2,750,000 on 28 December 1913. Renamed Sultan Osman I, she underwent trials in July 1914 and was completed in August, just as World War I began.

The war broke out during her sea trials before delivery. Even though the Ottoman crew had arrived to collect her, the British Government took over the vessel for incorporation into the Royal Navy. At the same time the British also took over a second Ottoman battleship, a King George V class-derived vessel being built by Vickers—Reshadiye—which was renamed HMS Erin. Such an action was allowed for in the contracts, as First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill did not want to risk the ships being used against the British, but it had consequences.

The takeover caused considerable ill will in the Ottoman Empire, where public subscriptions had partially funded the ships. When the Ottoman government had been in a financial deadlock over the budget of the battleships, donations for the Ottoman Navy had come in from taverns, cafés, schools and markets, and large donations were rewarded with a "Navy Donation Medal". The seizure, and the gift of the German battlecruiser Goeben to the Ottomans, influenced public opinion in the Empire to turn away from Britain, and they entered the war on the side of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire against the Triple Entente of Britain, France, and Russia on 29 October 1914, after Goeben had attacked Russian facilities in the Black Sea.

The Royal Navy made modifications to Agincourt before commissioning her: in particular it removed the flying deck over the two centre turrets. The ship was also initially fitted with Turkish-style lavatories that had to be replaced. Her name, "Agincourt", was a favourite of Churchill's, and had initially been allocated to a sixth vessel of the Queen Elizabeth class ordered under the 1914–15 Naval Estimates, but not yet begun at the war's outbreak. Her nickname, The Gin Palace, came from her luxurious fittings and a corruption of her name (A Gin Court), pink gin being a popular drink among Royal Navy officers at the time.

The Admiralty was unprepared to man a ship of Agincourt's size on such short notice and her crew was drawn "from the highest and lowest echelons of the service: the Royal yachts, and the detention barracks." Agincourt's captain and executive officer came from HMY Victoria and Albert III, most of whose crew was also transferred to Agincourt on 3 August 1914. Most of the naval reservists had already been called up by this time and sent to other ships so a number of minor criminals who had had their sentences remitted were received from various naval prisons and detention camps.