Competing South American capital ships could take shape in neighbouring British yards, close enough for each side to see the other's construction. Argentina's Rivadavia class was the exception to British construction in the regional dreadnought race. Foreign orders also fed suspicion that a nominal customer might be a proxy for another power, especially Russia. Rio de Janeiro began as a Brazilian ship, passed to the Ottoman Empire as Sultan Osman I, and was seized by Britain for service as HMS Agincourt. The sequence ties naval procurement to diplomacy, wartime risk, and control of industrial production.
Notable Point · 37:09-39:17
Dreadnought exports and the road to Agincourt
All South American dreadnoughts except Argentina's Rivadavia class came from British yards, while the Brazilian Rio de Janeiro became the Ottoman Sultan Osman I and then HMS Agincourt.