Greek battleship Salamis Salamis ( ) was a dreadnought battleship ordered for the Greek Navy from the AG Vulcan shipyard in Hamburg , Germany in 1912 . She was ordered in response to Ottoman naval expansion begun in 1911 . The ship was to have been 569 feet 11 inches ( 173 . 7 meters ) long , armed with eight guns , and have had a top speed of . " Salamis " was named after the Greek naval victory over a Persian fleet at the battle of Salamis in 480 BC . Work began on the keel on 23 July 1913 , and the hull was launched on 11 November 1914 . Construction stopped in December 1914 , following the outbreak of World War I in August of that year . The German navy employed the unfinished ship as a floating barracks in Kiel . The armament for this ship was ordered from Bethlehem Steel in the United States and could not be delivered due to the British blockade of Germany . Bethlehem sold the guns to Britain instead and they were used to arm the four s . The hull of the ship remained intact after the war and became the subject of a protracted legal dispute . She was finally awarded to the builders and the hull was scrapped in 1932 . Design . General characteristics . " Salamis " was long at the waterline , and had a beam of and a draft of . The ship was designed to displace . Had the battleship been completed , she was to have been powered by three AEG turbines , each of which drove a propeller shaft . The turbines were supplied with steam by 18 Yarrow boilers . This would have provided " Salamis " with 40 , 000 shaft horsepower and a top speed of . Armament . The primary armament of the ship was eight / 45 caliber guns mounted in four twin - gun turret s . Two turrets were to be mounted in a superfiring arrangement forward of the main superstructure , with the other two mounted similarly aft of the funnels . These guns had a rate of fire of between 1 . 25 and 1 . 75 rounds per minute ; they were capable of firing armor - piercing or high - explosive shells . The guns were estimated to be able to fire 500 rounds before wear on the barrels would necessitate repair . The shells were fired at a muzzle velocity of around 2 , 500 feet per second ( 762 m / s ) ; at elevation of 15° , the guns could hit targets out to 19 , 900 yards ( 18 , 200 m ) . At a range of , the shells were expected to penetrate up to 13 in ( 33 cm ) of armor plate . The ship ' s secondary battery was to consist of twelve / 50 guns mounted in casemate s amidships , six on either side . These guns fired 105 lb ( 47 . 7 kg ) projectiles at a rate of about 6 per minute . The shells were fired at a muzzle velocity of 2 , 800 f / s ( 853 m / s ) , and had a range of 15 , 000 yards ( 13 , 720 m ) at 15° . " Salamis " s armament was rounded out by twelve quick - firing guns , also mounted in casemates , and five submerged torpedo tubes . Armor . " Salamis " had an armored belt that was thick in the central section of the ship , where it protected critical areas , such as the ammunition magazines and machinery spaces . On either end of the ship , past the main battery gun turrets , the belt was decreased to thick ; the height of the belt was also decreased in these areas . The main armored deck was in the central portion of the ship , and as with the belt armor , in less important areas the thickness was decreased to . The main battery gun turrets were protected by 9 . 875 in - thick armor plate on the sides and face , and the barbette s in which they were placed were protected by the same thickness of armor . The conning tower was lightly armored , with only worth of protection . Construction and cancellation . In the run - up to the Balkan wars of 1912 – 1913 , the Ottoman Empire — Greece ' s traditional naval rival — set about modernizing its fleet . The first component was the order of the dreadnought in 1911 . The expansion of Ottoman naval power threatened Greek control of the Aegean ; to counter the Ottoman dreadnought , Greece decided to order a ship as well : the " Salamis " . The new battleship was ordered from the German shipbuilder AG Vulcan , based in Hamburg , in 1912 . This made Greece the fourteenth and final country to order a dreadnought battleship . The initial design called for a ship long with a beam of , a draft of , and a displacement of . The ship was designed with 2 - shaft turbines rated at 26 , 000 shp for a top speed of . The armament was to be six 14 inch guns in twin turrets , eight 6 inch , eight , and four guns , and two torpedo tubes . The design was revised several times ; by 23 January 1912 , it was finalized with the details specified above . The ship was to be delivered to the Greek Navy by March 1915 , at a cost of £1 , 693 , 000 . The keel was laid down on 23 July 1913 ; the hull was complete and ready for launching by 11 November 1914 , the day the ship entered the water . The main battery and secondary guns were sub - contracted to Bethlehem Steel in the United States . However , the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 had drastically altered the situation ; the naval blockade of Germany emplaced by Great Britain meant that the guns could not be delivered . Work was halted on 31 December 1914 . By this time Greece had only paid AG Vulcan £450 , 000 . Bethlehem refused to send the main battery guns to Greece . The 14 - inch guns were instead sold to the British , who used them to arm the four s . The incomplete vessel was towed to Kiel , where she was used as a barracks ship . After the end of the war , the Greek navy refused to accept the incomplete hull . AG Vulcan sued the Greek government in 1923 . A lengthy arbitration ensued ; on 23 April 1932 the arbitrators determined that the Greek government owed AG Vulcan £30 , 000 , and that AG Vulcan would be awarded the hull . The ship was broken up for scrap in Bremen that year . A second Greek dreadnought , the , a slightly modified version of the French , met a similar fate . Like " Salamis " , work on " Vasilefs Konstantinos " was halted by the outbreak of the war in August 1914 , and in the aftermath the Greek government refused to pay for the unfinished ship as well .