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LEOPARD
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(50) |
4th rate
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Built in 1790, Portsmouth and Sheerness.
Trooper in 1812.
Wrecked in 1814. |
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- In 1797 LEOPARD was involved in the mutiny at the Nore.
The first signs of collapse came when the mutineer leader Parker proposed handing the fleet over to the enemy on 9 June.
He was not obeyed and LEOPARD was the first to abandon the cause when her officers under Lieut. RODD (the captain had been sent ashore) seized control from the disillusioned crew and sailed for the Lower Hope. - 1799 Capt. SURRIDGE. Flagship of Rear Ad. John BLANKETT.
She sailed with convoy to the East Indies on 9 July.
On 30 August 1800 she was at Bombay after a passage of 11 days from Mocha. About 150 miles east of Aden LEOPARD captured the French privateer CLARISSA from Mauritius. The privateer, which carried 148 men, threw her guns and anchors overboard in her efforts to escape. - On 22 May 1802 LEOPARD, with INREPID, SYBILLE, TRIDENT, EURYDICE and ALBATROSS, arrived in the Madras Roads accompanying Vice Ad. RAINIER in VICTOROUS.
- When Capt. Peter HEYWOOD commanded LEOPARD he was ordered to survey the coast of Ceylon, more especially the shoals off the N. E. part of the island, and the whole extent between them and Point Calymere.
Hecalso ascertained the exact position of almost every place on the Indian coast and of the islands to the eastwards. James Horsbergh, who later became hydrographer to the East India Co., was fortunate enough to return to England with Capt. HEYWOOD in the Indiaman CIRENCESTER in 1805 and derived great assistance from him in preparing his book of sailing directions.
(Capt. HEYWOOD was a young midshipman in the BOUNTY.
He managed to escape from the mutineers in Tahiti but was sent back to England in chains, tried for his life as a mutineer and sentenced to death.) - Capt. George Ralph COLLIER was appointed to LEOPARD at the end of 1802.
Sir Home POPHAM's letter enclosing Cdr. COLLIER's account of his action against the French corvette FLECHE on 7 September 1801 whilst commanding the sloop VICTOR was received at the Admiralty on 20 July 1802 and his post commission, by Earl ST. VINCENT's order, was backdated to 22 April. She returned to England on 24 February 1803 - 1803 Under repair at Chatham.
- 1804 Capt. Francis William AUSTEN, 05/1804, flagship of Rear Ad. LOUIS. He served for the remainder of the year off Boulogne before removing to CANOPUS with Rear Ad. LOUIS for the Mediterranean.
- 1805 Capt. RAGGETT, 01/1805, bearing the flag of Ad. Billy DOUGLAS, Dungerness and Boulogne.
- 1806 Capt. Salusbury Pryce HUMPHRYS, Halifax station.
In May he was appointed to LEANDER but shortly after removed to LEOPARD, the flagship of Vice Ad.G. BERKELEY. Since the Admiral usually lived on shore LEOPARD was employed as a private ship. - While the squadron, BELLONA, BELLEISLE, TRIUMPH, LEOPARD, HALIFAX and ZENOBIA, were at anchor in the Chesapeake in the summer of 1807 a large number of seamen deserted ashore where they came under the protection of American law, and many were recruited into the US
frigate CHESAPEAKE. Ad. BERKELY ordered that the frigate was to be stopped and searched if she ventured out of American waters.
On 22 June Capt. HUMPHREYS encountered the CHESAPEAKE about 12 to 15 miles off Cape Henry and sent over an officer with his admiral's order and requested permission to search for deserters. The American Commodore BARRON rejected the request and Capt. HUMPHREYS, after repeated hailing, first directed that a shot be fired across her bows and then that several shots should be fired into her. Ten minutes later the CHESAPEAKE surrendered and four men belonging to MELAMPUS and HALIFAX were seized as deserters. One, Jenkin RADFORD (or RUTFORD), was found in the coal hole and recognised by the purser of LEOPARD as a man who had been discharged from her to the HALIFAX. The Americans had three men killed and 18 wounded, 8 of them badly, and her hull, masts and sails were damaged. CHESAPEAKE returned to Hampton roads and the affair had immediate repercussions when President Jefferson ordered all armed British vessels to leave American harbours and waters.
Capt. HUMPHREYS returned to England with his Admiral in 1808.
Commodore BARRON was court martialled and dismissed from the US navy for five years. (See HALIFAX.) - 1808 Capt. James JOHNSTONE, Convoy to the Cape of Good Hope on 6 May.
Flag ship of Vice Ad. BERTIE in the East Indies. She returned home in the summer of 1810. - 1811 In the spring she was being fitted out as a trooper at Chatham.
Later in the year, armed en flute, Capt. William Henry DILLON, to Leith. - 1812 Ditto Mediterranean.
LEOPARD was stationed for some time at Lisbon and also employed on the south coast of Spain. Rear Ad. HALLOWELL entrusted Capt. DILLON with the command of a small squadron assisting the British troops stationed at Carthagena.
Capt. DILLON was appointed to HORATIO on 18/01/1814.
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