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 (1883) steam steering gear broke down on 25 May. The "Phaeton" left Plymouth on 27 May to continue her cruise. By June 1887 was serving in the Mediterranean. In her initial months of service, the "Phaeton" suffered from a series of break-downs of her engines. For instance in one accident a piston-rod broke due to a manufacturing defect, and when it broke, cracked one of the cylinders. The January 1887 Navy List listed her commissioned and warrant officers as follows: "Phaeton" was recommissioned at Malta by Captain Reginald N. Custance on 18 March 1890. The January 1887 Navy List listed her