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) Pellew was confirmed in his rank of post captain on 14 October 1808, and went on to see action in the Invasion of Île de France in 1810 and the reduction of Java in 1811. In May, "Phaeton" escorted the second division of British troops, commanded by Major-General Frederick Augustus Wetherall, from Madras to Prince of Wales Island, and then on to Malacca. Once the expedition reached Batavia, "Phaeton" and three of the other frigates patrolled for French frigates known to be in the area. On 31 August a landing party from "Phaeton" and "Sir Francis Drake", together with marines