Phaeton (carriage) most impressive phaeton was the English four-wheeled high flyer. The mail and spider phaetons were more conservatively constructed. The mail phaeton was used chiefly to carry passengers with luggage and was named for its construction, using "mail" springs originally designed for use on mail coaches. The spider phaeton, of American origin and made for gentlemen drivers, was a high and lightly constructed carriage with a covered seat in front and a footman's seat behind. Fashionable phaetons used at horse shows included the Stanhope, typically having a high seat and closed back, and the Tilbury, a two-wheeled carriage with an elaborate
HMS Phaeton (1782) October). Then on 28 December "Phaeton" took the 12-gun "Hazard" in the Bay of Biscay. The next day, the 44-gun "Anson", Captain Philip Charles Durham, with "Phaeton", retook the 20-gun "Sphinx"-class post ship , which the French had captured almost exactly three years earlier. Out of a crew of 276, including 30 passengers of various descriptions, "Daphne", lost five men killed and several wounded before she surrendered. "Anson" had no casualties. On New Year's Day, 1798, "Phaeton" took "Aventure". On 19 February she took the 18-gun "Légère" in the Channel. On 22 March she participated in damaging the 36-gun frigate