Court-martial three types: Special, Summary, and General. In Herman Melville's novella "Billy Budd" (first published 1924), the title character is convicted at a drumhead court-martial of striking and killing his superior officer on board HMS "Indomitable", is sentenced to death, and is hanged. The novella has been adapted for the stage, film and television; notably in Benjamin Britten's 1951 opera "Billy Budd". In C. S. Forester's 1938 novel "Flying Colours", Captain Horatio Hornblower is court-martialed for the loss of HMS "Sutherland". He is "most honourably acquitted". Court-martial A court-martial or court martial (plural "courts-martial" or "courts martial", as "martial" is a
HMS Indomitable (92) down by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness, on 10 November 1937. She was launched on 26 March 1940 and commissioned the following year in October. She was christened by Clementine Churchill. She sailed to the West Indies in November 1941 for her maiden voyage. While there, "Indomitable" ran aground on a coral reef near Jamaica, though she returned to service soon afterwards. It has been suggested that this short delay proved fatal for British plans for Singapore. There were provisional plans that "Indomitable" was to join and in the port of Singapore as part of a deterrent force, "Force Orange", against Japanese