page_title: Lord Nelson-class battleship
section_title: Modifications
hierarchical_section_title: Lord Nelson-class battleship / Description / Modifications
caption_attribution_description: English: The quarterdeck of the battleship HMS Agamemnon, showing the aft 12-inch gun turret and the 3-pounder anti-aircraft gun
context_page_description: The Lord Nelson class consisted of a pair of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the twentieth century. Although they were the last British pre-dreadnoughts, both were completed and commissioned well over a year after HMS Dreadnought had entered service in late 1906. Lord Nelson and Agamemnon were assigned to the Home Fleet when completed in 1908, with the former ship often serving as a flagship. The sister ships were transferred to the Channel Fleet when the First World War began in August 1914. They were transferred to the Mediterranean Sea in early 1915 to participate in the Dardanelles Campaign.
  They remained there after the end of that campaign in 1916 and were assigned to the Eastern Mediterranean Squadron, which was later redesignated the Aegean Squadron, to prevent the ex-German battlecruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim and her consort, the light cruiser Midilli, from breaking out into the Mediterranean from the Dardanelles, although neither ship was present when the German ships made that attempt in early 1918.
context_section_description: Modifications to the sisters before 1920 were relatively minor. In 1909 the number of 3-pounders was reduced to four in Agamemnon and two in Lord Nelson. In 1910–1911 a rangefinder was installed of the roof of the forward turret in both ships and another was added to the spotting top in Agamemnon. The following year Lord Nelson had her spotting top modified to accommodate one as well. In 1913–1914 the ship had an additional rangefinder added to her bridge. The remaining 3-pounders were removed from the ships in 1914–1915 as were the rooftop and bridge rangefinders. A pair of 12-pounders were removed from the after superstructure in exchange for a pair of 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns on high-angle mounts. In 1916–1917, four 12-pounders were removed from the forward superstructure in Agamemnon while Lord Nelson only lost two. That ship lost two more from her aft superstructure in 1918.
  Early in 1919 the Admiralty decided that the Navy needed a radio-controlled target ship to properly train gunnery officers. It conducted tests to evaluate the effectiveness of 15-inch (380 mm) shells on armour plates as thick as the typical pre-dreadnought deck armour. At an equivalent range of 25,230 yards (23,070 m), the plates were completely destroyed and the Admiralty realized that 15-inch shells would do much the same to any of the surplus early dreadnoughts. It then limited all gunnery practice against the target ships to a maximum of 6-inch shells. Agamemnon was selected as the target ship in 1920 and was modified to suit her new role, including the installation of wireless equipment. She was disarmed and her 9.2-inch gun turrets were removed, but not her main-gun turrets. Most of her internal openings were plated over and much internal equipment was removed. Concerned about her stability with the loss of a lot of topweight, 1,000 long tons (1,016 t) of ballast were added low in the ship and Agamemnon was inclined to measure her stability. With a displacement of 14,185 long tons (14,413 t), the ship had a metacentric height of 8.56 feet (2.6 m).
caption: Agamemnon's 3-pounder Hotchkiss gun on a high-angle mount on the quarterdeck
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "b'SERVICE OF CAPTAIN C, ... ]", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Copyright": "b'\\xa9 IWM (Q 102514)'"}