The first HMS Bellerophon of the Royal Navy was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line launched on 6 October 1786 at Frindsbury on the River Medway, near Chatham. She was built at the shipyard of Edward Greaves to the specifications of the Arrogant class, designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1758.^[1] History has it that the First Lord of the Admiralty at the time, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, had a penchant for Greek and Roman mythology and plucked the name from Lemprière's Classical Dictionary. He directed that the vessel be named for the Greek warrior Bellerophon who rode the winged horse Pegasus and slew the monster Chimera^[2].

Early history

She fought at the battle of The Glorious First of June,^[3] the Battle of the Nile^[4] and the Battle of Trafalgar, becoming one of the most famous British ships of the Napoleonic Wars. An interesting letter to Henry D'Esterre Darby, her captain at the battle of the Nile, from Admiral Nelson, commander of the fleet at the battle, survives:

'My Dear Darby,

I grieve for your heavy loss of Brave fellows, but look at our glorious Victory. We will give you every assistance as soon as you join us, till then God Bless You.

Ever yours faithfully,

Horatio Nelson

Aug 3rd 1798

We shall both I trust soon get well.'

Her crew affectionately called the vessel the Billy Ruffian (or Billy Ruff'n). At Trafalgar she was the fifth in Admiral Collingwood's Southern division and thus was heavily engaged, battling the French L'Aigle to a bloody standstill at the cost of her captain John Cooke dead, 26 other crew killed and 123 wounded. Command was ably assumed by her first lieutenant William Pryce Cumby, who safely steered the battered ship back to Gibraltar. On board during the battle was future Arctic explorer John Franklin, serving as a young midshipman.

Napoleon's surrender

She achieved further fame on 15 July 1815 when Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered to Captain Frederick Maitland of the Bellerophon and was transported to Torbay where the ship anchored off Brixham on 24 July. There Maitland received orders from Admiral Lord Keith. He was '...most positively ordered to prevent every person whatever from coming on board the ship you command, except the officers and men who compose her crew'^[5].

In response to his orders, Captain Maitland refused to allow the usual visits of the boats full of traders with supplies of fresh food. John Michelmore, aboard one of the boats hoping to sell bread, saw a sailor in one of the lower gunports who signalled to them and then set adrift a small bottle containing a message that Bonaparte was aboard. He and the baker rowed ashore and the news quickly spread.^[6] While Maitland still kept boats from actually coming alongside, there were no further attempts to conceal the Emperor's presence. After two days, Bellerophon received orders to proceed to Plymouth harbour where Lord Keith was anchored aboard his flagship HMS Ville de Paris. Napoleon remained on board Bellerophon and the ship was still kept isolated from the throngs of curious sightseers by two guardships anchored close at hand. On 4 August, Lord Keith ordered Bellerophon to go to sea and await the arrival of HMS Northumberland which had been designated to take Napoleon into exile on St Helena. On 7 August, Napoleon left the Bellerophon where he had spent over three weeks without ever landing in England and boarded Northumberland which then sailed for St Helena.

Eventual fate

From 1816, Bellerophon was out of commission at Sheerness, and at some point became employed as a prison ship. She was renamed Captivity in 1824, and sold 12 January 1836 and broken up.

References in Literature

At the beginning of Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian's first book in the Aubrey-Maturin series of novels, the newly-promoted Jack Aubrey chances on a party of seamen when he is walking down to take command of his first ship:

'...some wearing broad striped trousers, some plain sailcloth; some had fine red waistcoats and some ordinary blue jackets; some wore tarpaulin hats, in spite of the heat, some broad straws, and some spotted handkerchiefs tied over their heads; but they all of them had long swinging pigtails and they all had the indefinable air of man-of-war's men. They were Bellerophons, and he looked at them hungrily as they padded by.'

References in Music

Indie Folk Band Beirut have a song called "Napoleon on the Bellerophon" on the Pompeii EP.

Notes

References

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