HMS Good Hope was one of four Drake-class armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy around 1900; she was originally named Africa, but was renamed before she was launched.

When war was declared in August 1914, Good Hope was ordered to reinforce the 4th Cruiser Squadron and became the flagship of Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock.

She was powered by two 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, which produced a total of 30,000 indicated horsepower (22,000 kW) and gave a maximum speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph).

[8] She was to be commissioned as flagship of Rear-Admiral Wilmot Fawkes as he succeeded as commander of the Cruiser Squadron in the Home Fleet, but was ordered first to convey Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, to South Africa in late 1902.

[10] During the outward voyage, the Good Hope docked at Port Said, Suez, Aden, Mombasa, and Zanzibar, before landing Chamberlain at Durban in late December.

After staying through Christmas at Port Elizabeth, she visited Simon's Town before returning home along the West Coast of Africa.

[11] Leaving Cape Town on 22 January 1903,[12] she docked several places and returned in February, then joined her sister ship HMS Drake cruising with the Mediterranean squadron until May 1903.

She rendezvoused at the old Royal Naval Dockyard (which had closed in 1905 and transferred to the Dominion government to become Her Majesty's Canadian Dockyard) in the former Imperial fortress of Halifax, Nova Scotia (which had replaced the Bermuda-based squadron of the North America and West Indies Station in 1907), with HMS Suffolk, the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock.

He received word on 7 October that Spee's ships were definitely bound for the Cape Horn region and waited for the elderly predreadnought battleship Canopus to reinforce his squadron.

Good Hope sailed on 22 October without her, going around Cape Horn, while Canopus and three colliers departed the following day, taking the shorter route through the Strait of Magellan.

[20] Good Hope rendezvoused with the rest of the squadron at Vallenar Roads in the remote Chonos Archipelago of Chile on 27 October to recoal.

He sent the light cruiser Glasgow to scout ahead and to enter Coronel, Chile, to pick up any messages from the Admiralty and acquire intelligence regarding German activities.

The cruiser departed on the morning of 1 November, but Spee had already made plans to catch her when informed of her presence the previous evening.

His ships were faster than the British, slowed by the 16-knot maximum speed of the armed merchant cruiser Otranto, and he opened up the range to 18,000 yards (16,000 m) until conditions changed to suit him.

Spee ordered his armoured cruisers to concentrate their fire on the British flagship and she soon drifted to a halt with her topsides all aflame.