From 1907–1911, "Dreadnought" served as flagship of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet. In 1910, she attracted the attention of notorious hoaxer Horace de Vere Cole, who persuaded the Royal Navy to arrange for a party of Abyssinian royals to be given a tour of a ship. In reality, the "Abyssinian royals" were some of Cole's friends in blackface and disguise, including a young Virginia Woolf and her Bloomsbury Group friends; it became known as the "Dreadnought" hoax. Cole had picked "Dreadnought" because she was at that time the most prominent and visible symbol of Britain's naval might.