Turkey's Toy Boat
 

Oops I'll say it again... I REALLY WANT THIS SHIP (Wahhh!)

http://www.historyhouse.com/in_history/turkey_boat/

Seriously, for all you dreadnought fans out there here's an interesting piece on the battle for the HMS Agincourt.

Mountbatten

Geez! What a poker game. And I thought the modern arms trade was byzantine.

The Agincourt had seven main gun turrets. Is that the record for a battleship?

http://www.revistanaval.kit.net/agincourtplano.jpg

Yes,

HMS Agincourt still holds the record for the greatest number (7) of main battery turrets mounted in a modern battleship.

Ah the gin palace!
 

I like it for more reasons than one - I think it might. The Ise and Hyuga of Japan might run it close... but no - those two have - or rather had - six twin 14's.

http://es.geocities.com/mymodelnet/iseplans.jpg

Now that would be my 'ship of dreams', Rio de Janeiro, Osman, Agincourt...

Rio de Janeiro - man even it's NAME sounds like a party!

Mountbatten

One of the books I have quotes someone who saw Agincourt fire a broadside at Jutland: "It looked like another battlecruiser blowing up"!

There were some who predicted that if she did fire a broadside she'd roll over and sink. Didn't happen, of course.

Her unofficial nickname was "The Gin Palace".

Thanks for the info guys. I sure can see the appeal of the old dreadnoughts and battlewagons with their bristling gun batteries and heavy armor. They looked the part. Modern warships with their hidden internal missle cells, ASW torpedo tubes and fighter & strike wings in the case of carriers just don't have the same imposing look. Far deadlier though.

Too angular
 

Thats the thing with ships nowadays... they look like some weirded out buck rodgers wannabee things. The best looking vessels I think nowadays are the Aegis cruisers - and most Russian heavies look good, Kirov particularly and the old Sverdlovs had that classic cruiser look. \

But give me the Rio de Janeiro Gin Palace any day!

Mountbatten