Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 38:18-44:24

What the Royal Navy's 18-inch guns may imply

The cut-down 18-inch guns fitted to Furious suggest that a larger battleship mounting may originally have been intended.

Battleship DesignHMS AgincourtNaval GunsRoyal NavyWorld War I
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Question

Do the Royal Navy's 18-inch guns point to an intended 18-inch battleship design?

Short answer

Possibly; their original dimensions and the timing of Agincourt suggest a plausible one-off experimental battleship, but the surviving evidence is incomplete.

Notes

The 18-inch weapons used in Furious were shortened for weight and may have originated in a larger-gun project. Agincourt could have served as a one-off test platform with small-tube boilers and three twin 18-inch mountings on a stretched Queen Elizabeth-type hull. This remains an inference from surviving design clues rather than a settled identification.