The Justice was a pre-dreadnought

Pre-dreadnought

Pre-dreadnought battleship is the general term for all of the types of sea-going battleships built between the mid-1890s and 1905. Pre-dreadnoughts replaced the ironclad warships of the 1870s and 1880s...

 battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

 of the French Navy

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

 of the Liberté class

Liberté class battleship

The Liberté class was a class of pre-dreadnought battleships of the French Navy, an improvement of the République-class battleship of a similar design.-Design and History:...

.

During her career, she nearly exploded like her sistership, Liberte did, but survived after the captain ordered the magazines to be flooded. She saw action during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 at Mudros, and was scrapped soon after the war.

Design

Commissioned in 1908, Justice had the same characteristics as her sisterships. She displaced 14900 tonnes (14,664.6 LT), was 134 metres (439.6 ft) long, had a beam

Beam (nautical)

The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...

 of 24.25 metres (79.6 ft) and a draft of 8.4 metres (27.6 ft). Equipped with three steam engines rated at 20500 ihp powered by twenty two coal-fired boilers, Justice could move at a maximum speed of 19.4 knots (10.6 m/s) and a range of 8000 nautical miles (9,206.3 mi) at 12 knots (6.5 m/s). She could carry 900 tonnes (885.8 LT) of coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

. Her main armament was four 305mm/40 Modèle 1893 gun

305mm/40 Modèle 1893 gun

The Canon de 305 mm Modèle 1893/96 was a heavy naval gun used as the main armament of a number of French pre-dreadnoughts during World War I. It equipped the Charlemagne, République and Liberté class battleships as well as the unique battleships Iéna and Suffren.-Description:The 12-inch/40 calibre...

s in two twin turrets, augmented by ten 194 millimetres (7.6 in) guns in five twin turrets and five torpedo tubes.

Service history

The Justice, three years after her commissioning in 1908 was the near victim of an accident similar to an explosion on her sistership, the Liberte, which had occurred only one month before. A short circuit near the forward magazines had started to spit out sparks in close proximity to the magazines. The captain flooded the forward magazines, and a disaster was averted. Along with her remaining sisterships and the remaining ships of the Danton class

Danton class battleship

The Danton class was a class of French battleships built between 1907–1911, which served in World War I. The six ships in the class were all pre-dreadnought battleships, the last of their kind produced in the French Navy.-Design and production:...

 (the lead ship was sunk by a U-boat), Justice served during in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 as the main naval presence at Mudros in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. She was scrapped in 1922.

In popular culture

The Justice was the subject of the American movie "A Day on the French battleship Justice", which was released in 1911.