Colin Pengelly - HMS Bellerophon

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HMS
BELLEROPHON

HMS
BELLEROPHON

C. A. PENGELLY

With a Preface by
PROFESSOR CHRISTOPHER LLOYD

Pen & Sword

MARITIME

First published in Great Britain in 1966
by John Baker Publishers Ltd.

Reprinted in this format in 2014 by
PEN & SWORD MARITIME
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright C.A. Pengelly, 1966, 2014

ISBN 978-1-4738-3737-9

The right of C.A. Pengelly to be identified as Author
of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying,
recording or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Printed and bound in England
By CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation,
Pen & Sword Family History, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military,
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BY PROFESSOR CHRISTOPHER LLOYD
Professor of Humane Studies, Royal Naval College, Greenwich

THE biography of a ship is often more interesting than the biography of an admiral. If, like the Bellerophon, she has a long record of service and a distinguished list of battle honours, her story serves as the history of a war. This, more or less, is what Mr Pengelly gives us in his very detailed account of the Billy Ruffn, as her men used to call her when they could not get their tongues around her proper name.

In 1965 we commemorated the bicentenary of the launching of H.M.S. Victory. It is an odd coincidence that Sir Thomas Slade, her designer, also designed the Bellerophon in the same year, though she was not built for some time to come. Like the Victory, the Bellerophon made her reputation in the twenty years of war against the French Revolution and Napoleon. Like her, her most distinguished service was as a unit of Nelsons fleet at Trafalgar. Like her, she was painted Nelson fashion, that is to say, black with yellow strakes, her gunports being painted black to give her a chequerboard appearance. Like the Victory, the Bellerophon (one of Collingwoods division) lost most of her masts at Trafalgar and her captain was killed on board.

She was, of course, a much smaller ship than the 100-gun three-decker. She was the first of the seventy-fours, or two-decker third rates, the backbone of the fleet because of their strength and versatility in all types of operations.

The Bellerophons record proves what an excellent national investment she was. Her area of service ranges from the Mediterranean and the Baltic to the West Indies and the North American station.

Her battle honours include the Glorious First of June, the Nile (where she was dismasted after an hours action with the French flagship), Trafalgar, and the surrender of Napoleon off Rochefort in 1815. She had an honourable record of service in fleets commanded by such men as Howe, St Vincent, Cornwallis, Saumarez, and of course Nelson.

By using the details provided by her logs and by the journals kept by officers serving on board, Mr Pengelly can give us a detailed account of her life at sea and the conditions under which men served in her. He is fortunate in being able to draw on two journals in particularthat of Matthew Flinders, later the circumnavigator of Australia, who served in her as a lieutenant, and that of Pryce Cumby, who gives a vivid idea of the conditions under which the battle of Trafalgar was fought.

Better known to past generations is the story told by her last captain. Sir Frederick Maitland, of the surrender of Napoleon. His book is now almost forgotten, and the collection of letters about the event which I printed in my edition of the Keith Papers is not known to a wide circle, so we can welcome Mr Pengellys continuous narrative of that curious and epoch-making episode.

On their way to Plymouth, Napoleon complained to Maitland that wherever there is water to float a ship, we are sure to find you in our way. The Bellerophon is a good example of this, because she spent so much of her time in what one of her captains called the dismal drudgery of the Bay, meaning the naval blockade off Ushant and in the Bay of Biscay which was, in the last analysis, the reason for the defeat of Imperial France. She was, in fact, to use the better known and more colourful language of Mahan, a fine example of those far distant, storm-beaten ships, upon which the Grand Army never looked, which stood between it and the dominion of the world.

It is only fitting that her figurehead should be preserved in the Victory Museum at Portsmouth and that she should now have found a devoted biographer.

CHRISTOPHER LLOYD

Contents

by Prof. Christopher Lloyd

APPENDIX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

(Photo by J.A. Hewes, Copyright the Author)

(From the portrait by Copley in the National Maritime Museum)

(Painting by J. Clevely, National Maritime Museum)

(From the portrait by Abbott, in the National Maritime Museum)

(From the stipple portrait in the National Maritime Museum)

(Picture by Whitcombe, National Maritime Museum)

(Painting by de Loutherberg, National Maritime Museum)

(From the painting by Buttersworth, National Maritime Museum)

(Portrait by Abbott, National Maritime Museum)

(Contemporary engraving, National Maritime Museum)

(Contemporary engraving, National Maritime Museum)

(Painting by Abbott, National Maritime Museum)

(From the mezzotint after J. Jackson, National Maritime Museum)

(Engraving by de Martino, National Maritime Museum)

(Painting by Whitcombe, National Maritime Museum)

(Permission of the National Maritime Museum)

(Contemporary engraving, National Maritime Museum)

(Drawing by W. Joy, National Maritime Museum)

The Battle of the Nile. Plan based on information of Capt. Miller. The Audacious is shown in wrong position, she should be raking Conqurant. (From Clarke & M Arthurs Life of Nelson, 1809)

(From a contemporary engraving after Captain Tobin, R.N., National Maritime Museum

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