The first HMS Bellerophon of the Royal Navy was a 74-gun ship of the line launched 6 October 1786 on the River Medway near Chatham.
She fought at the battle of The Glorious First of June, the Battle of the Nile and the Battle of Trafalgar (under John Franklin), becoming one of the most famous British ships of the Napoleonic Wars. Her crew affectionately called her the Billy Ruffian.
She achieved further fame in 1815 when she carried Napoleon from the Ile d'Aix to Plymouth before he was transferred to HMS Northumberland and taken into exile on St Helena.
Bellerophon continued in use as a prison ship. She was renamed Captivity in 1824, and sold 12 January 1836.
See HMS Bellerophon for other Royal Navy ships of this name.
Reference
- David Cordingly, The Billy Ruffian: The Bellerophon and the Downfall of Napoleon (Bloomsbury USA, 2003)
