page_title: HMS Agincourt (1865)
section_title: 1871 grounding on Pearl Rock
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Agincourt (1865) / Construction and service / 1871 grounding on Pearl Rock
caption_attribution_description: English: Sketch by Fitzgerald of HMS Hercules (left) towing HMS Agincourt (right) off Pearl Rock near Gibraltar. Fitzgerald was first Lieutenant on Hercules.
context_page_description: HMS Agincourt was a Minotaur-class armoured frigate built for the Royal Navy during the 1860s. She spent most of her career as the flagship of the Channel Squadron's second-in-command. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, she was one of the ironclads sent to Constantinople to forestall a Russian occupation of the Ottoman capital. Agincourt participated in Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee Fleet Review in 1887. The ship was placed in reserve two years later and served as a training ship from 1893 to 1909. That year she was converted into a coal hulk and renamed as C.109. Agincourt served at Sheerness until sold for scrap in 1960.
context_section_description: It was during this assignment that she suffered a near-catastrophe when she ran aground on Pearl Rock, near Gibraltar in 1871 and nearly sank. Agincourt was leading the inshore column of ships, contrary to normal practice where the senior flagship lead the inshore column, and gently ran aground sideways when the senior flagship's navigator failed to compensate for the set of the tide. Warrior, immediately following her, nearly collided with her, but managed to sheer off in time.
  Agincourt was stuck fast and had to be lightened; her guns were removed and much of her coal was tossed overboard before she was towed off by Hercules, commanded by Lord Gilford, four days later. Heavy weather set in the night after Agincourt was freed and it would have wrecked her if she had still been aground. Both the fleet commander and his deputy were relieved of their commands as a result of the incident. The ship was repaired in Devonport and Captain J.O. Hopkins assumed command in September with Commander Charles Penrose-Fitzgerald as his executive officer. 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."
  In 1873, Vice Admiral Sir Geoffrey Hornby, commander of the Channel Squadron, transferred his flag to Agincourt as her sister Minotaur, his former flagship, was taken in hand for a refit that lasted until 1875. That year Agincourt was paid off in turn for a refit and re-armament that lasted until 1877. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, the government became concerned that the Russians might advance on the Ottoman capital of Constantinople and ordered Hornby to form a Particular Service Squadron to show the flag at Constantinople and deter any Russian threat. Agincourt served as the flagship for his second-in-command and the squadron sailed up the Dardanelles in a blinding snowstorm in February 1878. After those tensions faded, the ship returned to the Channel, where she served as second flag until 1889 including during Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee Fleet Review in 1887. Over her active career, she served as flagship to no less than 15 admirals. 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.
  Agincourt served twelve years at Portland, as a depot ship for boys. She was renamed Boscawen III in March, 1904. In 1905 she was moved to Harwich and renamed as Ganges II. After four years at Harwich, Ganges II made her final journey, to Sheerness, in 1909.  After her arrival the old ship was converted into a coal hulk known simply as C.109.  After five ignominious decades as what naval historian Oscar Parkes called "a grimy, dilapidated and incredibly shrunken relic" of her former self, she was scrapped beginning on 21 October 1960.
caption: Hercules (left) towing Agincourt (right) off Pearl Rock
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