HMS Agincourt was one of three Minotaur class

Minotaur class battleship

The Minotaur class armoured frigates were essentially enlarged versions of HMS Achilles with heavier armament and armour, and more powerful engines....

 ironclads

Ironclad warship

An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship in the early part of the second half of the 19th century, protected by iron or steel armor plates. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The first ironclad battleship, La Gloire,...

, the sistership of HMS Minotaur

HMS Minotaur (1863)

HMS Minotaur was the lead ship of the armoured frigates built for the Royal Navy during the 1860s. They were the longest single-screw warships ever built. Minotaur took nearly four years between her launching and commissioning because she was used for evaluations of her armament and different...

 and a near sister to HMS Northumberland

HMS Northumberland (1865)

HMS Northumberland was a long-hulled broadside ironclad warship of the Victorian era, and was the third and final ship of the Minotaur class to be commissioned.-Construction:...

. She was a fully rigged ship with a steam engine and an armoured iron hull and was launched in 1865.

Construction

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Agincourt's original name when laid down at Birkenhead was HMS Captain. Construction proceeded well and, with her name changed to Agincourt, she was launched and floated out of dry dock in March 1865.

Agincourt had a displacement of 10,800 tons. She was powered by a Maudslay return connecting rod engine with an IHP of 6,700, delivering a service speed of 14.8 knots.

Service history

She was commissioned in June 1868, her first assigned task being the towing of a floating dock from England to Madeira, in company with her near sister HMS Northumberland

HMS Northumberland (1865)

HMS Northumberland was a long-hulled broadside ironclad warship of the Victorian era, and was the third and final ship of the Minotaur class to be commissioned.-Construction:...

.

Channel Fleet

Channel Fleet

The Channel Fleet was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1690 to 1909.-History:The Channel Fleet dates back at least to 1690 when its role was to defend England against the French threat under the leadership of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of...

After successfully bringing the dock to Madeira, Agincourt worked up and joined the battle fleet. Her immense size and power earned her pride of place in the squadrons to which she was attached, and she was almost always taken up as a flagship by the presiding admirals. From 1869 to 1873 she wore the flag of the Admiral second-in-command of the Channel Fleet

Channel Fleet

The Channel Fleet was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1690 to 1909.-History:The Channel Fleet dates back at least to 1690 when its role was to defend England against the French threat under the leadership of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of...

, with her sister Minotaur serving as the Fleet's flagship.

1871 grounding on Pearl Rock

It was during this assignment that she suffered a near-catastrophe when, in 1871, she grounded at Pearl Rock, near Gibraltar, and nearly sank. The squadron was commanded by Admiral Wellesly from his flagship Minotaur with second in command Rear Admiral Eardley Wilmot onboard Agincourt. The squadron had been ordered to conserve coal, so was steaming at only six knots through the Gibraltar straights on a clear calm day, still within sight of the fortress. The current locally runs at four knots, so the ship was making little headway and most of the officers had gone below. What was not appreciated was that the current was also pushing the ships sideways; Agincourt grounded on the Pearl Rock so gently that it was hardly felt by the crew. She was leading one line of ships, so that Warrior next behind nearly ran into her.

Anchors were laid out and attempts made to move the ship by hauling against them. This failed so then lighters from the dockyard and ship's boats set about removing everything mobile to lighten the ship. The next day, again an attempt was made to haul Agincourt off the rocks, and again it failed. Now the guns were removed, and on the following day HMS Inconstant

HMS Inconstant (1868)

HMS Inconstant was an iron screw frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 12 November 1868 and became a training ship in 1906, renamed Impregnable II. She became the Navy's torpedo school ship in January 1922 and was renamed Defiance IV, and Defiance II in December 1930, before being finally...

 was ordered to tow her off the rocks. The captain was unable to get close enough for a clear tow, and this attempt failed also. The matter was now becoming of some concern, because should the weather worsen Agincourt would likely be broken up on the rocks. Coal was jettisoned to reduce weight. On the fourth day HMS Hercules

HMS Hercules (1868)

HMS Hercules was a central-battery ironclad of the Royal Navy in the Victorian era, and was the first warship to mount a main armament of calibre guns....

 commanded by Lord Gilford

Richard Meade, 4th Earl of Clanwilliam

Admiral of the Fleet Richard James Meade, 4th Earl of Clanwilliam, GCB, KCMG , styled Lord Gillford until 1879, was a British Royal Navy officer and peer.-Background:...

 was ordered to attempt a tow. He set anchors and then backed his ship so that it was stern to stern with Agincourt. Two chains could now be attached each taking equal strain. Using the engines and hauling on the anchors, Agincourt came free. That night an Atlantic swell came through the straights, which would have destroyed the ship.

The squadron returned to England, where both admirals and Agincourt's captain were replaced. Sir Geoffrey Hornby now took command of the squadron, with Rear-Admiral Frederick Campbell as his second in command on the now repaired Agincourt. In September 1871 Captain J.O Hopkins was appointed the new commander of Agincourt, with Commander Charles Penrose Fitzgerald

Charles Cooper Penrose Fitzgerald

Charles Cooper Penrose-Fitzgerald was a Vice-Admiral in the Royal Navy.-Family:His father was Robert Uniacke Penrose who married Francis Matilda Austin, daughter of the Revd Robert Austin, prebendary of Cloyne Cathedral. Charles married Henrietta Elizabeth Hewson on 29 November 1882, daughter of...

 as her second in command (newly promoted from being first Lieutenant onboard Hercules). Hopkins later commented: 'We turned the Agincourt from the noisiest and the worst disciplined ship in the squadron into the quietest and the smartest; and a few months after we commissioned we went out to the Mediterranean for the Lord Clyde court-martial, and beat the whole Mediterranean fleet in their drills and exercises, which was a great triumph'.

1873-1875 Channel fleet flagship

Agincourt flew the second-in-command's flag until 1873, when her sister Minotaur was taken in hand for a refit, and for the next two years she served as flagship in the Channel, relinquishing that role in 1875 when Minotaur rejoined the fleet.

1875-1877 Re-armament

After another two years' good service, Agincourt was paid off in 1875 for re-armament, trading her outdated muzzle loading guns for new breach-loading ones. The following year, with her new armament, she became part of the Particular Service Squadron which passed through the Dardanelles

Dardanelles

The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...

 under the command of Admiral Hornby during the war scare with Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 over their advance towards Constantinople. After those tensions faded, Agincourt returned to the Channel, where she served as second flag until 1889. That year she was again paid off and was subsequently held in reserve at Portsmouth until 1893, when she was transferred to Portland for use as a training ship. During her active career Agincourt was the flagship of no less than fifteen admirals, some of whom were among the most notable figures of Victorian naval history.

Later years as Boscawen III and Ganges II

HMS Ganges (shore establishment)

HMS Ganges was a training ship and later stone frigate of the Royal Navy. She was established as a boys' training establishment in 1865, and was based aboard a number of hulks before moving ashore. She was based alternately in Falmouth, Harwich and Shotley...

Agincourt, now renamed Boscawen III, would serve twelve years at Portland. In 1905 she was moved to Harwich and renamed once again, this time to Ganges II

HMS Ganges (shore establishment)

HMS Ganges was a training ship and later stone frigate of the Royal Navy. She was established as a boys' training establishment in 1865, and was based aboard a number of hulks before moving ashore. She was based alternately in Falmouth, Harwich and Shotley...

. After four years at Harwich, Ganges II made her final journey, to Sheerness, in 1909. After her arrival at Sheerness the old ship was systematically stripped, and converted into a coal hulk known simply as C.109, much like HMS Warrior's

HMS Warrior (1860)

HMS Warrior was the first iron-hulled, armour-plated warship, built for the Royal Navy in response to the first ironclad warship, the French Gloire, launched a year earlier....

career as an oil jetty at Pembroke. Unlike Warrior, however, Agincourt was not destined to be rescued and restored to her former glory; after five ignominious decades as what Oscar Parkes called "a grimy, dilapidated and incredibly shrunken relic" of her former self, she was scrapped in 1960.

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