page_title: HMS Bellerophon (1786)
section_title: West Indies and return to Britain
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Bellerophon (1786) / Napoleonic Wars / West Indies and return to Britain
caption_attribution_description: English: From the museum's website A half-length portrait of Captain John Cooke wearing a captain's full-dress uniform (over three years), 1795-1812; sea and sky form the background. He was captain of the 'Nymphe' when, together with the 'San Fiorenzo', they captured the French frigates, 'Résistance' and 'Constance' off Brest in March 1797. He was killed at Trafalgar when commanding the 'Bellerophon', being one of two captains to die there: the other was George Duff of the 'Mars'. The 'Bellerophon' was engaged in close action with the French 'L'Aigle'. At 11 minutes past one, while reloading his pistols for the third time, Cooke was shot in the chest and fell to the deck. A 14-year-old midshipman, George Pearson, rushed forward to lend assistance but he was felled by a splinter. Mortally wounded, Cooke's last words to his quartermaster were 'Let me lay one minute'.
context_page_description: HMS Bellerophon, known to sailors as the "Billy Ruffian", was a ship of the line of the Royal Navy. A third-rate of 74 guns, she was launched in 1786. Bellerophon served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, mostly on blockades or convoy escort duties. She fought in three fleet actions: the Glorious First of June, the Battle of the Nile and the Battle of Trafalgar. While the ship was on blockade duty in 1815, Napoleon boarded Bellerophon so he could surrender to the ship's captain, ending 22 years of almost continuous war between Britain and France.
  Built at Frindsbury, near Rochester in Kent, Bellerophon was initially laid up in ordinary, briefly being commissioned during the Spanish and Russian Armaments. She entered service with the Channel Fleet on the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792, and took part in the Glorious First of June in 1794, the first major fleet action of the wars.
context_section_description: Bellerophon was in the West Indies when the Napoleonic Wars broke out in May 1803. Her captain, John Loring, was appointed commodore of the British squadron, which quickly went on the offensive against French shipping in the Blockade of Saint-Domingue. In mid-1803, the squadron under Captain Henry William Bayntun, consisting of HMS Bellerophon, Cumberland, Hercule, Elephant, and Vanguard captured the French privateers Poisson Volant and Superieure. The Royal Navy took both into service.  The corvette Mignonne and a brig were captured in late June, after which the British patrolled off Cap-François. On 24 July the squadron, made up of Bellerophon and the 74-gun ships HMS Elephant, HMS Theseus and HMS Vanguard, came across two French 74-gun ships, Duquesne and Duguay-Trouin, and the frigate Guerrière, attempting to escape from Cap-François. The squadron gave chase, and on 25 July overhauled and captured Duquesne after a few shots were fired, while Duguay-Trouin and Guerrière managed to evade their pursuers and escape to France. One man was killed aboard Bellerophon during the pursuit.  She remained blockading Cap-François until November, when the French commander of the garrison there, General Rochambeau, approached Loring and requested to be allowed to evacuate his men, which were being besieged by a native Haitian force led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines. To prevent Rochambeau escaping, Loring sent launches from Bellerophon and Elephant into the Caracol Passage where they cut out the French schooner Découverte on 22–23 November. The French formally surrendered on 30 November and were allowed to evacuate on three frigates, Surveillante, Clorinde, and Vertu, and a number of smaller ships, and were escorted to Jamaica by the squadron.
  A particularly severe outbreak of malaria struck the ship in early February 1804; 212 members of Bellerophon's crew fell ill. 17 died aboard the ship, while 100 had to be transferred to a shore-based hospital, where a further 40 died. She was ordered back to Britain in June, escorting a large convoy, and arrived in the Downs on 11 August. She briefly paid off and was taken into Portsmouth Dockyard for a refit. On 27 September four shipwrights working in magazine by candle light set off some loose powder. The explosion killed all four.
  Bellerophon rejoined the Channel Fleet, still off Brest, and under the command of Admiral Sir William Cornwallis. These duties lasted until early 1805, with Loring being superseded by Captain John Cooke on 24 April.
caption: Captain John Cooke, Bellerophon's captain at the Battle of Trafalgar, painted c. 1797–1803 by Lemuel Francis Abbott.
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