HMS Leander (1780)
Action between H.M.S. Leander and the French National Ship Le Généreux, August 18th 1798, C. H. Seaforth. Généreux visible in the front, Leander damaged in background.
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| Name: | HMS Leander |
| Ordered: | 21 June & 25 July 1776 |
| Builder: | Chatham Dockyard, M/Shipwright Israel Pownoll to April 1779; completed by Nicholas Phillips |
| Laid down: | 1 March 1777 |
| Launched: | 1 July 1780 |
| Honours and awards: |
Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Nile" |
| Fate: | Captured 18 August 1798 by the French Navy |
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| Name: | Leander |
| Acquired: | By capture 18 August 1798 |
| Captured: | 3 March 1799 by the Russian Navy |
| Fate: | Returned to the Royal Navy |
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| Name: | HMS Leander |
| Acquired: | Returned by Russian Navy |
| Renamed: | Hygeia, in 1813 |
| Reclassified: | Converted to hospital ship 1813 |
| Fate: | Sold 1817 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 50-gun fourth rate |
| Tons burthen: | 1052 46⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 40 ft 8 in (12.4 m) |
| Draught: | 17 ft 5 in (5.3 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Armament: | |
HMS Leander was a Portland-class 50-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy, launched at Chatham on 1 July 1780. She served on the West Coast of Africa, West Indies, and the Halifax station. During the French Revolutionary Wars she participated in the Battle of the Nile before a French ship captured her. The Russians and Turks recaptured her and returned her to the Royal Navy in 1799. On 23 February 1805, while on the Halifax station, Leander captured the French frigate Ville de Milan and recaptured her prize, HMS Cleopatra. On 25 April 1805 cannon fire from Leander killed an American seaman while Leander was trying to search an American vessel off the US coast for contraband. The resulting "Leander Affair" contributed to the worsening of relations between the United States and Great Britain. In 1813 the Admiralty converted Leander to a hospital ship under the name Hygeia. Hygeia was sold in 1817.
She was commissioned in June 1780 under Captain Thomas Shirley.Leander cruised for some time in the North Sea.
At the end of 1781 Leander and the sloop-of-war HMS Alligator sailed for the Dutch Gold Coast with a convoy, consisting of a few merchant-vessels and transports. Britain was at war with the Dutch Republic and Shirley launched an unsuccessful attack on 17 February on the Dutch outpost at Elmina, being repulsed four days later. Leander and Shirley then went on to capture the small Dutch forts at Moree (Fort Nassau - 20 guns), Kormantine (Courmantyne or Fort Amsterdam - 32 guns; 6 March), Apam (Fort Lijdzaamheid or Fort Patience - 22 guns; 16 March), Senya Beraku (Berricoe, Berku, Fort Barracco or Fort Goede Hoop - 18 guns; 23 March), and Accra (Fort Crèvecœur or Ussher Fort - 32 guns; 30 March).Leander also destroyed the French store-ship Officeuse, off Senegal, supposed to be worth £30,000. Shirley garrisoned those facilities with personnel from Cape Coast.
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Wikipedia