F. S. Bell used. F. S. Bell Captain Frederick Secker Bell CB (17 August 1897 – 23 November 1973) of the Royal Navy was the commander of during the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939. He was educated at Matfield Grange, a prep school in Kent, and then at the Royal Naval Colleges of Osborne and Dartmouth. He served afloat in the battleship at the Battle of Jutland, as First Lieutenant of the destroyer in the Reserve Fleet at Devonport, 1923–25, and as executive officer of from 1935–38 and was promoted captain on 31 December 1938. He took command of in
HMS Captain (1743) HMS Captain (1743) HMS "Captain" was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built according to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Woolwich Dockyard, and launched on 14 April 1743. In 1760, "Captain" was reduced to a 64-gun ship. Then in 1777 she was converted to serve as a storeship and renamed "Buffalo". Although a storeship, "Buffalo" shared, with , and , in the proceeds from 's capture of the 12-gun French privateer "Comte de Maurepas", on 3 August 1780. In 1781, with 60 guns back on board, although she only had 18