HOME THE SHIPS     The York     The Discovery     The Warrior     The Success     The Defense     The Bellerophon THE HULK MASTERS REVIEW EXCERPTS THE INTRODUCTION ABOUT THE AUTHOR BUY THE BOOK CONTACT LINKS	THE BELLEROPHON As a man-of-war HMS Bellerophon distinguished herself in the first van of Nelson's fleet at Trafalgar. The picture above depicts a later noteworthy mission, the last she was to undertake as a British naval vessel. Only a year after taking the defeated French emperor aboard for the first leg of his voyage to final exile at St. Helena, Bellorophon was decommissioned, retrofitted and put into service as a hulk for "boy convicts" at Sheerness. The boys, some of them not more than eleven years of age, were soon moved to a smaller (less suitable) vessel. Bellerophon took adult convicts aboard, many of whom went ashore each day to work on Sheerness harbor projects. Bellerophon continued as a prison hulk at Sheerness for nine years, usually having aboard about 480 convicts.