April 28, 1896 saw the launch of the battleship Hannibal at HM Dockyard Pembroke in Wales. According to accounts, the crowd was not overly large, but nobody was displeased when the ship was christened by Mrs. Lawrie (or Laurie) the wife of an MP for the district. The ship slipped into the water without delay or incident and was towed to Hobbs Point where she was to receive her engines and boilers.

By the Great War HMS Hannibal was a relic, she was mostly disarmed and sent to Scapa Flow where she served as a guard ship until late 1915. She was then converted into a troopship and made her way to the Dardanelles and finally to Alexandria where she was used as a depot ship until mid 1919. She was scrapped the following year.