In 1761 the Bellona, one of Slade's earlier designs for a 74, engaged in a single-ship action with the French 74-gun ship Courageux. There was a fierce gun battle but within thirty minutes the French ship was forced to surrender, although she was larger by 100 tons and had 150 more men than the Bellona. Slade's designs were to prove equally successful in the great fleet actions of the wars against France, notably in the three battles in which the Bellerophon took part. There were ten of Slade's ships at the battle of the Glorious First of June in 1794. No fewer than eight of the twelve British 74-gun ships which annihilated the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile were Slade designs. And at the Battle of Trafalgar, which took place more than thirty years after his death, seven of the ships were Slade designs, including the Victory of 100 guns, generally regarded as his masterpiece and arguably the most famous warship of all time. Of course it was often the morale and fighting qualities of the British officers and seamen which were responsible for the spectacular victories of the age of Nelson, rather than the design of the ships, but the fact was that Slade's ships were severely tested in a variety of conditions. They were the subject of comprehensive sailing reports sent in by captains, and again and again they proved their superiority. This explains why so many ships were built to Slade's designs and why it became recognised that a British ship could invariably beat a French ship in single-ship actions even though the French ship might be up to 50 per cent more powerful in terms of her guns.
It would make for a better story if we could say that on a certain day Sir Thomas Slade sat down at his drawing board and started work on his designs for the Bellerophon. He had his office in Crutched Friars, near the Tower of London, and we could picture him there, surrounded by ship models, with plans and sketch designs pinned up on the walls around him. But Slade had been dead for ten years when the Navy Board ordered the building of the Bellerophon. He had died in 1771 at the age of sixty-eight, leaving an impressive legacy of ship designs and a reputation for honesty and hard work. To quote from his gravestone again, 'He had constantly in view the improvement of the King's Yards, and the English Navy; which great end he steadily pursued with an unwearied application and spotless integrity.'
The Bellerophon was one of fourteen ships built to the design of the Arrogant which had been designed by Slade in 1758. Other ships in the same class included several which would play distinguished parts in forthcoming conflicts, notably the Goliath which led the British fleet into action at the Battle of the Nile, and the Elephant, Nelson's flagship at Copenhagen. Although the plans for the Bellerophon and the Arrogant have not survived there are a number of other plans of 74-gun ships bearing Slade's signature in the National Maritime Museum in London. Like all plans for naval ships of the period these are drawn to a 1:48 scale and show the four key aspects of the ship which the shipbuilders needed in order to fashion the oak and elm timbers into the shapes required. The first aspect was the side elevation or profile; the second was the plan view of one half of the ship, which was usually drawn underneath the profile view; the third and fourth aspects were drawn together as a composite plan, one half showing the cross-section of the ship viewed from the bow and the other showing the ship viewed from the stern.
It would have been the job of a draughtsman in the Surveyor's office to make an exact copy of the plans of the Arrogant by pricking through the master plan onto a sheet of paper below and then re-drawing it as accurately as possible. Sir John Henslow, the Surveyor who succeeded Slade and who so much admired him, would have checked the new plan, signed it, and then arranged for it to be placed in a specially designed box and delivered to Chatham dockyard. The senior officers at Chatham were responsible for supervising the building of any navy ships built at private yards on the River Medway. From Chatham the plans would have been passed on to Mr Edward Greaves at Frindsbury.
While Thomas Slade can be regarded as the father of the Bellerophon, the role of the mother, or at least the midwife, must belong to Edward Greaves because it was he who was responsible for bringing the ship into the world. Unfortunately we know very little about him apart from his correspondence with the Navy Board and the occasional mention of ships built by him which appear in various Admiralty documents. We do know that he was a shipbuilder of considerable experience because he already had a flourishing ship-yard on the Thames at Limehouse where he had built several ships for the navy. These were mostly small ships and he was evidently keen to build a ship of the line. It must have been with this in mind that he took on the lease of the shipyard at Frindsbury.
A contemporary picture of the shipyard gives the impression that it was no more than a few wooden sheds crouching uncertainly at the water's edge. However the yard was put up for auction in 1790, four years after the launch of the Bellerophon, and the advertisement which appeared in the Kentish Gazette suggests that it was unusually well set up for a private yard. We learn that the property was 'delightfully situated in the parish of Frindsbury', and 'In the shipbuilders yard there has lately been built ships of war of 74 guns, and other vessels and is as commodious as any private yard in the kingdom either for builders or timber merchants, with a good rope walk and every suitable convenience.' During the 1770s the yard had been owned by Henniker and Nicholson, and at least three naval warships had been built there. Sir John Henniker was a local grandee (he is commemorated by a lavish monument in Rochester Cathedral) and, although it was presumably Mr Nicholson who managed the yard, Sir John may well have ensured that it was provided with everything necessary for the construction of ships of all sizes.
In December 1781 Edward Greaves approached the Navy Board with a proposal to build a 64-gun ship at his yard on the Thames, and a 74-gun ship and a frigate at Frindsbury. He was turned down on all counts. The minutes of the Navy Board for 14 December are curt and to the point: 'Acquaint him we do not approve of building a ship of 64 guns at his Dock in the River nor of building a 74 gun ship and Frigate at Sir Jn. Hinnikers Yard opposite Rochester.'
The Navy Board had arranged for his building slipway at Limehouse to be surveyed and decided that nothing larger than a 44-gun ship could be built there; and they were concerned that the shipyard at Frindsbury was too close to the royal dockyard at Chatham. Merchant yards usually offered higher wages than those in the royal dockyards and they did not want Greaves poaching skilled workmen from Chatham. Greaves overcame the Navy Board's objections to Frindsbury by entering into an agreement 'not to employ any Artificers from the Kings Yard'. On 8 January 1782 the Navy Board agreed that 'Sir Jn Hinnikins Yard at Frinsbury is a proper place for building a 74 gun and 32 gun ship' and informed Greaves of their decision. For some reason Greaves did not reply immediately because on 16 January the Navy Board were pressing him to let them know whether he was prepared to go ahead with the building of the 74-gun ship at Rochester. He wrote back at once. His letter is hidden among dozens of dusty letters with names beginning with the letter G which are crammed into a cardboard box in the Public Record Office. It is a key document in the life story of the Bellerophon.