HMS Africa was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, and the penultimate ship of the . The ship was built by Chatham Dockyard between 1904 and 1906. Armed with a battery of four and four guns, she and her sister ships marked a significant advance in offensive power compared to earlier British battleship designs that did not carry the 9.2 in guns. Like all ships of the class (apart from ), she was named after an important part of the British Empire, namely Africa. After commissioning in July 1905, she served briefly with the Atlantic Fleet from October to March 1907 before transferring to the Channel Fleet. She then joined the Home Fleet in 1909. Africa participated in tests with shipboard aircraft in January 1912, and she was the first British ship to launch an aeroplane. In mid-1912, she, along with her sister ships, was assigned to the 3rd Battle Squadron, part of the Home Fleet. That year, the squadron went to the Mediterranean Sea during the First Balkan War as part of an international blockade of Montenegro. In 1913, the ship returned to British waters. When the First World War broke out, Africa was transferred back to the 3rd Battle Squadron, which was assigned to the Grand Fleet, the main British fleet during the war. Through 1914 and 1915, the ships frequently went to sea to search for German vessels, but Zealandia saw no action during this period. By the end of the year, the Grand Fleet stopped operating with the older 3rd Battle Squadron ships, and in April 1916 the 3rd Squadron was relocated to the Nore Command. Later that year, Africa was attached to the 2nd Detached Squadron, then serving in the Adriatic Sea. In 1917, she was sent to the 9th Cruiser Squadron, based in Sierra Leone; while she was there, her crew was stricken with Spanish flu. Africa returned to Britain in October 1918, was decommissioned the following month, and sold for scrap in 1920. Design Following the development of pre-dreadnought type battleships carrying heavy secondary guns of diameter in the Italian Regia Marina and the United States Navy, the Royal Navy decided to build similar ships. Initial proposals called for a battleship equipped with eight guns to support the main battery, though under the direction of William Henry White, the Director of Naval Construction, these were replaced with four guns. The new ships,