Seven ships of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

have been named HMS ''Africa'', after the continent of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. Two others were planned: * was a 46-gun ship in service from 1694 to 1696. * was a 64-gun

third-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Years of experience proved that the third r ...

launched in 1761 and sold in 1774. * was a 64-gun third-rate launched in 1781. She fought at the

Battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (180 ...

and was broken up in 1814. * HMS ''Africa'' was a

prison ship A prison ship, often more accurately described as a prison hulk, is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts, prisoners of war or civilian internees. While many nat ...

, launched in 1803 as the 36-gun

fifth rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a fifth rate was the second-smallest class of warships in a hierarchical system of six " ratings" based on size and firepower. Rating The rating system in the Royal ...

. She became a prison ship in 1826, was renamed HMS ''Africa'' in 1859 and was sold in 1860. * was a wooden-hulled

screw sloop A screw sloop is a propeller-driven sloop-of-war. In the 19th century, during the introduction of the steam engine, ships driven by propellers were differentiated from those driven by paddle-wheels by referring to the ship's ''screws'' (propelle ...

launched in 1862 and sold to China later that year. She was renamed ''China'' and was sold in 1865. * HMS ''Africa'' was to have been a ''Drake''-class cruiser but she was renamed in 1899, before being launched in 1901. * was a ''King Edward VII''-class battleship launched in 1905 and sold in 1920. * HMS ''Africa'' was to have been an ''Audacious''-class aircraft carrier. She was ordered in 1943, but was later reordered as a ''Malta''-class carrier, before being cancelled in 1945. * There was also an Irish hired armed cutter ''Africa'', of 7080/94 tons burthen ( bm), in

service from 12 December 1803 to 12 January 1810.Winfield (2008), p.393.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Africa, Hms Royal Navy ship names

See also

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