Bellerophon HMS-ship of the line (1786)

[Anatol]

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 (1794), the Battle of the Nile (1798) and the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). In 1815 was assigned to blockade the French Atlantic port of Rochefort. In July 1815, defeated at Waterloo and finding escape to North America barred by the blockading Bellerophon, Napoleon came aboard "the ship that had dogged his steps for twenty years" (according to maritime historian David Cordingly) to finally surrender to the British. It was Bellerophon's last seagoing service. She was paid off and converted to a prison ship in 1815, and was renamed Captivity in 1824 to free the name for another ship. Moved to Plymouth in 1826, she continued in service until 1834, when the last convicts left. The Admiralty ordered her to be sold in 1836; she was subsequently broken up for scrap.
Bellerophon's long and distinguished career has been recorded in literature and folk songs.
See more details:viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17614.
The stamp image is based on a fragment of a painting by John James Chalon: “Scene on Plymouth Sound in August 1815”
Barbuda 2019; 4$.
Source: https://wiki5.ru/wiki/HMS_Bellerophon_(1786).