HMS Africa (1781)
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| Ship data | ||
| Owner: | British Royal Navy | |
| Surname: | Africa | |
| Contract award: | February 11, 1778 | |
| Keel laying : | March 2, 1778 | |
| Launching ( ship christening ): | April 11, 1781 | |
| Builder: | Adams & Barnard Shipyard | |
| Crew: | about 500 officers and men | |
| Fate: | 1795–1805 hospital ship, demolished in 1814 | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Type: | Battery ship (timber construction, two-decker ) | |
| Length over all: | 159 '6 " | |
| Main battery deck length: | 131 ' | |
| Width: | 44 '6 " | |
| Drive: | sail | |
| Displacement : | 1,379 t | |
| Draft: | 18 'depth | |
| Armor system: | without | |
| Armament | ||
| 9 pounders on the quarterdeck : | 10 | |
| 9-pounder on the bow fort: | 4th | |
| 18 pounder on the upper battery deck: | 26th | |
| 24-pounder on the lower battery deck: | 26th | |
The HMS Africa was a third class ship of the line of the Royal Navy armed with 64 cannons . The launch took place in Deptford on April 11, 1781. The Africa was the second ship of the Inflexible class .
During the American War of Independence , the Africa was dispatched to Indian waters in the spring of 1782 and took part in the Battle of Cuddalore in 1783 .
In 1805 the ship played an important role in the Battle of Trafalgar . The Africa was separated from the main line of attacking British ships, so that her commander, Captain Henry Digby, was not informed of Horatio Nelson's battle plan. She therefore entered the battle alone and from a completely different direction. Africa intervened in the fighting by passing the Franco-Spanish line and exchanging broadsides .
During the war against Denmark (1807–1814), the Africa protected a convoy from Sweden to England in October 1808, when it was attacked and almost captured in Øresund by small, cannon-armed Danish and Norwegian rowing sloops under the command of Johan Cornelius Krieger ; only with luck could she escape badly damaged to Karlskrona, Sweden.
In the war of 1812 she was part of that combat unit under the command of Captain Philip Broke , which tried in vain to provide the USS Constitution .
In 1814 she was scrapped in Portsmouth .