Maxima Library

This is the story of one ship, from her birth in a small shipyard near Rochester to her death fifty years later in a breaker's yard at Rotherhithe (1782–1836). The ship was called Bellerophon, after the Greek hero who tamed the winged horse Pegasus, but the sailors had some difficulty in pronouncing her name and so she became known throughout the fleet as the 'Billy Ruffian' or 'Billy Ruff'n'. She achieved lasting fame in 1815 when Napoleon surrendered to her captain a few weeks after the battle of Waterloo but she already had a long and distinguished record and had earned the title 'the bravest of the brave'.