LAST DAYS OF FAMOUS WARSHIP

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 28 December 1926, Page 8

LAST DAYS OF FAMOUS WARSHIP

. The honourable end of a once famous 'battleship, now a ; floating target’ .for big guns, is mentioned in the magazine of William Beardmorc and Co., Ltd., the famous shipbuilders and engineers of Glasgow. The vessel is H.M.S, Agamemnon, one of tlieir two ' last pre-dreadnouglit battleships, which had a displacement of 3 (5,500 tons, a speed of !8A knots, huge fuel capacity, a 12in. belt of armour and four 12in. and ten 9.2 in guns, in addition to 35 smaller ones. She did remarkable service bombarding the Dardanelles during tlie war, blit in view of the rapid development in battlesliip design, she was out of date and due to be scrapped shortly after the return of peace. Instead of this, however, the hull was found to be in such magnificent condition, that she was turned into a target -ship- and fitted with wireless controls.

She had been attacked by aircraft and fired at by every type of gun and bomb, but is still doing useful work for the fleet in this capacity, a remarkable tribute to the workmanship of her builders. In connection with gun practice it is recalled that it was the Agamemnon that logged a new gunnery record in 1909, when one of this ship’s 12-pound-ers fired 15 rounds in 55 seconds arid scored 15 hits.