Phaeton (carriage) Roger Button, Benjamin's father, owns a phaeton that is his primary mode of transportation until Benjamin buys the first automobile in Baltimore. In Susannah Kells' novel "Fallen Angels", a phaeton is the transportation of choice for the main character, Campion, who later crashes the carriage in a perfect example of its dangerous and fickle reputation. The character Mr. Spenlow from the novel "David Copperfield" dies suddenly of a heart attack while driving his phaeton home. Henry James, in his short story "An International Episode" (1878) has Lord Lambeth driven through town in "a little basket-phaeton" by his companion Bessie Aldon.
HMS Phaeton (1782) from "Hussar", captured a fort from the French at Sumenep on the island of Madura, off Java. The British lost three men killed and 28 wounded. Pellew sailed "Phaeton" home in August 1812, escorting a convoy of East Indiamen. For his services he received a present of 500 guineas and the thanks of the East India Company. In 1816, Capt. Frances Stanfell sailed "Phaeton" from Sheerness, bound for Saint Helena and the Cape of Good Hope. In April 1818, Capt. W. H. Dillon commissioned "Phaeton". In the autumn of 1818 Lieutenant John Geary, who had joined "Phaeton" at her re-commissioning,