The Bellerophon, with Napoleon aboard since 15 July, first anchored at Torbay on the 24th, then reached Plymouth Sound on 26 July 1815. The British government had not yet decided its prisoner's fate and refused to let him land: allowing him to touch English soil would give him access to the courts and to habeas corpus.
What followed was something of a fairground. The news spread, the papers carried it, and thousands of sightseers poured in from Devon and London. Boats were hired at extortionate prices to approach the ship; on fine days the press counted up to a thousand craft around her. Napoleon appeared on the quarterdeck in the late afternoon, bowed, and the crowd took off their hats.
Two frigates formed a cordon to keep the curious at a distance, without much success. Whig lawyers tried to have a writ served that would have forced him ashore; the Admiralty moved first. On 4 August the order came to transfer him to the Northumberland, a ship better suited to a long voyage.
The transfer took place on 7 August, at sea off the Devon coast, to avoid any call at a port. He embarked with a reduced suite of three officers and their families; the rest of his entourage was turned back. The Northumberland sailed the next day for Saint Helena: seventy days at sea, and he would never see Europe again.
