The proposed reconstruction of the canceled HMS Agincourt keeps established evidence separate from hypothesis. The ship was associated with Portsmouth, where Queen Elizabeth had already been built, and small-tube boilers intended for it appear to have gone instead to Courageous and Glorious. Its unexplained delay, three surviving 18-inch barrels, missing original order details, and the Admiralty's separate conclusion that six heavy guns were a workable minimum could fit a three-twin-turret design. In that reconstruction, Agincourt combined battleship armor, about 28 knots, and six 18-inch guns as a one-off British answer to emerging American 16-inch ships. No decisive archival document proves the case, so the passage offers a lesson in evaluating historical inference and missing records as well as an imagined warship.
Notable Point · 2:08:03-2:42:14
The uncertain 18-inch Agincourt hypothesis
The proposed sixth Queen Elizabeth becomes a source-critical investigation into whether Britain intended a one-off, small-tube-boiler battleship with six 18-inch guns.