F. S. Bell 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 August
HMS Trompeuse (1799) HMS Trompeuse (1799) HMS "Trompeuse" was the French privateer "Mercure", captured in 1799. She foundered in the English Channel in 1800. British records on "Mercure" are ambiguous. French records are more informative. Two seminal British references declare that captured "Mercure" in May 1797. However, there is no letter in the "London Gazette" for "Melampus" capturing a "Mercure" in 1797, which by itself is not unusual, but two other sources, one of them a letter in the "London Gazette" by the captain of "Melampus", puts his capture of a "Mercure" in February 1799 (see below). Winfield has "Mercure" being named "Trompeuse"