Four 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 F ...

have been named HMS ''Justitia'', after the goddess

Justitia Lady Justice ( la, Iustitia) is an allegorical personification of the moral force in judicial systems. Her attributes are scales, a sword and sometimes a blindfold. She often appears as a pair with Prudentia. Lady Justice originates from the p ...

, of

Roman mythology Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these representat ...

: * 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 nation ...

, formerly a merchant vessel, purchased in 1777 and in service until at least 1795. * was a 74-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 ...

captured from the Danish at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807 and broken up in 1814. * HMS ''Justitia'' was a 64-gun third rate, formerly a Dutch ship. She was seized in 1796 and named , renamed HMS ''Justitia'' in 1812 and was sold in 1830. * HMS ''Justitia'' (1830) was a

convict ship A convict ship was any ship engaged on a voyage to carry convicted felons under sentence of penal transportation from their place of conviction to their place of exile. Description A convict ship, as used to convey convicts to the British coloni ...

, launched in 1799 as the British

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

East Indiaman East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

''Admiral Rainier''. The Royal Navy acquired her 1804 and commissioned her as the 50-gun

fourth rate In 1603 all English warships with a compliment of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers a six tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided i ...

. She was reduced to 20 guns and renamed HMS ''Dolphin'' in 1819, and then HMS ''Justitia'' in 1830. She retained that name until her sale in 1855.

Ships of other nations

* was a Danish ship-of-the-line heavily involved in the

Great Northern War The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedi ...

* is the same ship as HMS ''Justitia'' (1807) above * The brig ''Justitia'' was captured by HMS ''Medusa'' and prize money paid in 1810London Gazett
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Justitia Royal Navy ship names