The concept collapses under existing treaties:
In short, any navy that built a prison battleship would be operating outside the laws of armed conflict. Commanders ordering fire upon such a ship would be legally justified; the imprisoning navy would be guilty of war crimes.
While "Prison Battleship" offers an entertaining and thought-provoking experience, it's not without its flaws. Some plot points feel predictable, and the character arcs could have been explored more deeply. Additionally, the movie's pacing occasionally falters during the quieter moments, which might seem slow in comparison to the action-packed sequences. prison battleship
The closest historical analogue to the prison battleship is the prison hulk—decommissioned warships used as floating prisons. In 18th and 19th century Britain, ships like HMS Discovery and HMS York held convicts during the American Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars (Campbell, 2001).
However, these were disarmed, stationary vessels. They were not "battleships"; they were derelict hulls chosen for their inability to escape, not their ability to fight. The prison battleship inverts this: It proposes a vessel that is both a lethal weapons platform and a human repository. The concept collapses under existing treaties:
France was perhaps the most dedicated user of prison battleships. The Borda (a former 120-gun ship-of-the-line) served as a naval training school, but its sister hulks housed military prisoners. The most notorious French prison battleship was the Mutine, which held deserters and mutineers from the Napoleonic Wars. Conditions were so brutal that a mutiny aboard a prison battleship broke out in 1871, suppressed only by firing cannon grapeshot into the lower decks.
Imagine descending into the orlop deck of a 74-gun ship. Designed for 600 sailors, it now held 1,200 convicts. The decks were covered in iron bars and heavy gratings. Light and air came only through scuttles (portholes) too small for a human head to pass through. In short, any navy that built a prison
These floating prisons were technically battleships, but they were battleships in name only. They were the hellish proof that a demilitarized warship does not become safe; it becomes a cage.