HMS Justinian

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Career Royal Navy Ensign
Launched: 1786
General characteristics
Tons burthen: 1,685
Length: 170 ft 10 in (52.1 m) on the gun-deck
Propulsion: Sail
Complement: 590
Armament: GD: twenty-eight 32 lb guns;
UD: twenty-eight 18 lb guns;
QD: fourteen 9 lb guns;
FC: four 9 lb guns.

HMS Justinian is a fictional ship from C. S. Forester’s novel Mr. Midshipman Hornblower. In the novel, Justinian is Horatio Hornblower’s first ship. He enters service as a Midshipman in the 74-gun ship of the line at the age of seventeen.

The Justinian is described as a Third-rate launched on the Thames in 1786 to the design of Sir Thomas Slade. She was an old ship by the time Hornblower came on board and not a happy one. Captain Keene was a sick man and several of her lieutenants were far too old for active service. The midshipman’s mess, Hornblower’s new home, was ruled by a bully named Simpson. Simpson, at age thirty-three, had failed his examination for lieutenant too many times to ever expect promotion and he took out his bitterness and disappointment on his juniors. After he fought a duel with Simpson, Hornblower was transferred to another ship by Captain Keene for his own good. The Justinian was badly damaged by grounding in 1797 and ended as a sheer hulk in Plymouth.

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