Bellerophon, Indefatigable and the Passing of Ships

[anteros_lmc]

Last week I finished reading David Cordingly's Billy Ruffian. It's an excellent book of course and I know a lot of my flist have read it long since. Did anyone else cry at the end? I found the final chapter, covering the latter years that Bellerophon served as a prison hulk and describing how she was finally sold off and broken up in 1836,

Comments

[esteven]

Did anyone else cry at the end? I found the final chapter, covering the latter years that Bellerophon served as a prison hulk and describing how she was finally sold off and broken up in 1836, incredibly moving.
*nods*
There and whenever I see Turner's Temeraire
*sniffles*

[mylodon]

Ditto to both. I'd love to think that some of the timbers survived and were used like Chesapeake's.

[esteven]

As you say it would be lovely if some of the timbers survived. I was pleased to see that the Dockyards Museum at Portmouth has a high-backed chair made from Temeraire's wood.

[anteros_lmc]

There's an interesting little paragraph on wikipedia about Temeraire artefacts. Unfortunately the wooden leg made from her timbers can no longer be traced!

[vespican]

The picture of INDY illustrates one of it's unusual features. Having originally been a two-decker, her remaining stern and quarter galleries open off the quarterdeck, rather than the upper or gun deck. As such, she was also unusual in having a poop deck, roofing over stern cabins.
Dave

[anteros_lmc]

Well spotted. You can see this feature on the plans which nodbear and I have. You can just about make it out here. Of course it also means that the Indefatigable had a pretty huge stern cabin for a frigate!