HMS Leopard (1790)

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Leopardchesapeake.jpg
History
United Kingdom
Name:Leopard
Ordered:
  • 16 October 1775
  • Reordered in May 1785
Builder:
Laid down:
  • January 1776 (Portsmouth)
  • 7 May 1785 (Sheerness)
Launched:24 April 1790
Completed:By 26 May 1790
Reclassified:Troopship in 1812
Honours and
awards:		Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"[1]
Fate:Wrecked on 28 June 1814
General characteristics
Class and type:50-gun -class fourth rate
Tons burthen:1,055 ​75⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 146 ft 5 in (44.6 m) (overall)
  • 120 ft 0 3⁄4 in (36.6 m) (keel)
Beam:40 ft 8 in (12.4 m)
Depth of hold:17 ft 6 in (5.33 m)
Propulsion:Sails
Sail plan:Full rigged ship
Complement:350
Armament:
  • Upper deck: 22 x  12-pounder guns
  • Lower deck: 22 x  24-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 x  6-pounder guns
  • Fc: 2 x  6-pounder guns

HMS Leopard was a 50-gun -class fourth rate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and was notable for the actions of her captain in 1807, which were emblematic of the tensions that later erupted in the War of 1812 between Britain and America. She was wrecked in 1814.

Construction and commissioning

She was first ordered on 16 October 1775, named on 13 November 1775 and laid down at Portsmouth Dockyard in January 1776.[2] She was reordered in May 1785, ten years after having first been laid down, and construction began at Sheerness Dockyard on 7 May 1785. Work was at first overseen by Master Shipwright Martin Ware until December 1785, and after that, by John Nelson until March 1786, when William Rule took over.[2] She was launched from Sheerness on 24 April 1790, and was completed by 26 May 1790. She was commissioned for service in June that year under her first commander, Captain John Blankett.[2]