HMS Africa was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, and the penultimate ship of the King Edward VII class.

The new ships, though based on the general Majestic type that had formed the basis of the preceding four battleship designs, marked the first significant change in the series.

The King Edward VII-class ships were powered by a pair of 4-cylinder triple-expansion engines that drove two screws, with steam provided by sixteen water-tube boilers.

[3] On her 8-hour full-power trials conducted on 3 June 1906, Africa reached a top speed of 18.95 knots (35.10 km/h; 21.81 mph) from an average of 18,671 ihp (13,923 kW).

[3][5] As was customary for battleships of the period, she was also equipped with five 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes submerged in the hull; two were on each broadside, with the fifth in the stern.

[3] HMS Africa was laid down at Chatham Dockyard on 27 January 1904, launched on 20 May 1905, the ship was supposed to be christened by the Marchioness of Salisbury, however, due to unforeseen illness, Lady Londonderry took her place.

During this service she commissioned at Chatham as flagship of Vice Admiral Sir William Henry May, commander of the Third and Fourth Divisions, Home Fleet, on 25 April 1911; the battleship King Edward VII relieved her of this duty on 24 July 1911.

Africa's crew tested the strength and stability of the rails by jumping up and down on them, then held the Gnome-engined Short Improved S.27 pusher seaplane in place as Lieutenant Charles Samson entered its cockpit to attempt the first British shipboard aircraft take-off on 10 January 1912 while the ship was at anchor in the River Medway.

After a few minutes, Samson climbed to 800 feet (240 metres) and concluded his historic flight by landing safely at an airfield ashore.

Based on the 1912 flight experiments on Africa, Hibernia, and battleship London, the Royal Navy concluded that shipboard aircraft were desirable for spotting and other fleet duties, but also that a fixed runway on a battleship interfered too much with the firing of the guns and that recovering seaplanes that had landed in a seaway was too difficult to be practical as a routine operation.

But shipborne aviation had begun in the Royal Navy aboard Africa, and by 1917 would become an important part of British fleet operations.

[8] Upon the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the 3rd Battle Squadron, at the time under the command of Vice Admiral Edward Bradford, was assigned to the Grand Fleet and based at Rosyth, where it was reinforced with the five Duncan-class battleships,[14][15] It was used to supplement the Grand Fleet's cruisers on the Northern Patrol.

[8] On 6 August, the day after Britain declared war on Germany, elements of the Grand Fleet sortied to inspect the coast of Norway in search of a German naval base violating Norwegian neutrality.

Four hours later, they met the 1st and 4th Battle Squadrons, en route from Scapa Flow, though they failed to reach the German High Seas Fleet before the latter withdrew.

The Grand Fleet remained at sea until late on 17 December, at which point the 3rd Battle Squadron was ordered back to Rosyth.

[21] On 23 January, the 1st and 2nd Battlecruiser Squadrons sortied to ambush the German I Scouting Group in what resulted in the Battle of Dogger Bank the following day.

The 3rd Battle Squadron patrolled the area with the rest of the Grand Fleet overnight before being detached at 08:00 on 25 January to steam to Rosyth.

The fleet went to sea again on 29 May for a patrol south to the Dogger Bank before returning to port on 31 May, again without having located any German vessels.

Instead, Revel decided to implement a blockade at the relatively safer southern end of the Adriatic with the main fleet, while smaller vessels, such as the MAS boats, conducted raids on Austro-Hungarian ships and installations.

[27] When her refit was completed in March 1917, Africa was attached to the 9th Cruiser Squadron for service in the Atlantic Patrol and for convoy escort duties.

[8] In September 1918, while Africa was based at Sierra Leone, some of her crew became ill during the influenza pandemic that broke out that year.

By the time Africa hauled down her quarantine flag on 30 September 1918, 52 crew members had died of illness out of a total complement of less than 800.

In December 1919 she was selected to replace the protected cruiser Diadem as stokers' training ship at Portsmouth, but this was cancelled.

Africa was placed on the sale list in March 1920, and was sold for scrapping to Ellis & Company of Newcastle upon Tyne, England on 30 June 1920.