HMS Leda was an 18pdr-armed, 38 gun, Fifth Rate frigate, built at the Chatham Royal Dockyard. The ship went on to be the lead vessel of a class of 47 large frigates.
Based on the design of the ex-French HMS Hebe, captured in 1782, the Leda Class frigates were ordered in six batches between 1800 and 1817. The first batch was comprised of just HMS Leda, while the second batch comprised eight ships ordered between 1802 and 1809 and included the famous HMS Shannon. The third batch of eight ships was ordered in 1812 and were to be fir-built. Of the seven vessels which made up the fourth batch, ordered at the same time, two were ordered from the Honourable East India Company's Bombay shipyard and were teak-built. One of those vessels, HMS Trincomalee, has survived to the present day. The rest of the fourth batch were oak-built in the UK. A fifth batch, of six vessels was ordered in 1816, but they differed from previous ships in that they incorporated Sir Thomas Sepping's design for a round stern. The sixth and final batch was to have comprised 23 ships ordered to the same design as the fifth batch and was ordered in 1817, but the final six ships were cancelled. HMS Unicorn, currently preserved in Dundee, was ordered as part of this batch.
HMS Leda was ordered from Chatham Dockyard on 27th April 1796 and her first keel section was laid on 1st May 1799. The construction project was overseen by Mr Edward Sison, Master Shipwright in the Chatham Royal Dockyard. She was launched with all due ceremony into the River Medway, almost complete, on 18th November 1800. In common with the usual practice, the ship commissioned while being fitted with her guns, masts and rigging at Chatham under Captain George Johnstone Hope, into the Channel Fleet.
On completion, HMS Leda was a ship of 1,062 tons, she was 150ft 2in long on her gundeck, 125ft 6in long at the keel and 39ft 11in wide across the beam. She was armed with 28 18pdr long guns on her gundeck with 6 32pdr carronades and 8 9pdr long guns on her quarterdeck and 2 32pdr carronades and 2 9pdr long guns on the forecastle. In addition to her main guns, HMS Leda was also fitted with around a dozen half-pounder swivel guns fitted to her quarterdeck and forecastle handrails and in her fighting tops. Because at the time, carronades weren't included in the rated number of guns, she was officially rated as a 38 gun 5th rate ship, although in reality, she actually carried 46 guns. The ship was manned by 284 officers, seamen, boys and Royal Marines.
Leda Class PlansOrlop Plan:
Lower or Berth Deck Plan:
Upper or Gundeck Plan:
Quarterdeck and Forecastle Plan:
Framing Plan:
Inboard Profile and Plan:
Sheer Plan and Lines:
Sail Plan:
HMS Trincomalee open to the public and on display at Hartlepool. HMS Leda was identical:
On 12th March 1801 HMS Leda recaptured the British privateer Bolton, of 20 guns. The Bolton was operating under a Letter of Marque as well as carrying out her 'day job' as a cargo ship. She had left Demerara in modern day Guyana bound for Liverpool with a cargo of sugar, indigo, cotton and coffee and had been captured by the French privateer Gironde after an hour-long fire-fight, which had killed 2 passengers and wounded her captain. Let me now take a few lines to explain what a 'Letter of Marque' was. Up to the 1850s, ocean-going merchant vessels were armed as a matter of course, to defend against pirates, hostile warships etc. In time of war, ship-owners could apply to a government for a 'Letter of Marque'. This was in effect, a license to engage and seize enemy ships and sell both ships and cargoes for a profit. This might seem to many as being a form of legalized piracy and was a practice known as 'privateering'. Pirates were seen then, as they are today, as being murdering, thieving scum. Privateering on the other hand was seen as a patriotic and honourable thing to do.
On 5th April 1801, HMS Leda captured the French cargo ship Desiree, of 80 tons, sailing from Bordeaux to Brell with a cargo of wheat. On 9th April, she recaptured the Portugese ship Caesar of 100 tons, which had been carrying a cargo of sundries from Bristol to Lisbon when she had been taken by the French privateer Laura. On 1st May, she captured the French privateer Jupiter of 16 guns, which was cruising out of Morlaix looking for targets. Later the same day, HMS Leda recaptured the Portugese ship Tejo which had been taken by the French.
After that, the ship sailed for the coast of Egypt, to enforce a blockade of the Nile Delta. A French army had been stranded in Egypt following Nelson's overwhelming victory at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. This army, demoralised and cut off from home was eventually defeated by a British Expeditonary Force in 1801 and in September that year, HMS Leda returned to the UK. On 2nd September, HMS Leda captured the Spanish vessel El Venturose, which was taken to Gibraltar and disposed of there.
In March 1802, the Treaty of Amiens was signed, ending the war after almost nine years. In September, HMS Leda received a new commander, Capt John Hardy. He was followed in the job by Capt Robert Honeyman, who was to command the ship on and off for the rest of her career.
In May 1803, the peace fell apart and Britain declared war on France on the 18th. HMS Leda was once again assigned to blockade duty in the English Channel in addition to chasing down blockade-runners. Captain Honeyman was placed in charge of a small squadron of brigs based around HMS Leda, patrolling off Boulogne. On the day the war broke out, HMS Leda in company with HMS Amelia captured the Dutch merchant vessel De Phoenix. By a strange coincidence, HMS Amelia had previously been the French frigate Proserpine, a Hebe class ship, captured in 1796. This meant that despite being built by opposing countries in war, the two ships were virtually sisters. The next day, HMS Leda captured the Bodes Lust. Five days after that, HMS Leda, in company with HMS Amelia, HMS Gelikheid and the 64 gun Third Rate ship of the line HMS Raisonnable ran down and caught the Dutch ship Twee Vrienden. On 29th September, HMS Leda and her squadron engaged a force of 26 enemy gunboats and drove 2 ashore before the rest made it into Boulogne. HMS Leda was struck by a shell fired from a shore battery during this engagement and was hit in her hold. Fortunately, it did no significant damage.
HMS Leda then saw no action until the end of July 1804, when a boarding party under Lieutenant McLean attempted to cut out a French gunboat in Boulogne. Unfortunately, wind and tide were against the British and after a severe fight against the French, only 14 of the 38 men in the boarding party made it back to their ship. Mr McLean was one of those killed in the action.
In 1805, the French were gearing up for an invasion of Britain and on 24th April 1805, HMS Leda sighted a force of 27 French Schyuts rounding Cap Gris Nes. A schyut is a kind of flat-bottomed river barge, propelled by sail or oars, of around 80 - 100 tons fully loaded. Capt Honeyman immediately ordered his squadron to engage so all the ships, HMS Fury, HMS Harpy, HMS Railleur, HMS Bruiser, HMS Gallant, HMS Archer, HMS Locust, HMS Tickler, HMS Watchful, HMS Monkey and HMS Firm, tore into the enemy. After a fight, which occurred close to the enemy shore batteries on Cap Gris Nes, HMS Starling and HMS Locust had captured 8 of the enemy vessels. The next day, HMS Archer brought in two more and Railleur brought in another 8.
In January 1806, she was part of Sir Home Popham's squadron at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch, where she provided support for the landing ships. In February 1806, HMS Leda took part in the capture of the Rolla and on 4th March in Table Bay, was present when HMS Diadem captured not only the French frigate Volonaire, but the two transport ships the Frenchman was escorting. The two transport ships turned out to have been British vessels which had been taken by the Volonaire in the Bay of Biscay.
Sir Home Popham then took his squadron across the Atlantic for operations off the River Plate. On 9th September, HMS Leda pursued an enemy brigantine bound for Montevideo. The crew of the enemy vessel panicked, drove their vessel ashore and abandoned it. HMS Leda sent her boats to capture or destroy the enemy vessel. They found the enemy ship to be unarmed and because of the weather conditions were unable to refloat or burn it, so left it to be smashed up by the heavy surf. Although the enemy had abandoned their ship, they did not intend to allow the British to simply take or destroy it. Opening fire with small-arms, they wounded 4 of the British sailors. HMS Leda remained off South America until the British left in September 1807 and after the final evacuation, returned to Sheerness.
After her return to the UK, HMS Leda resumed her blockade duties in the English Channel and on 4th December, captured the French privateer Adolphe. In that action, HMS Leda was lucky, the French ship was very well armed but only had 25 men aboard. The other 45 men of her crew had been put aboard various prizes taken by her.
Between then and 24th January 1808, HMS Leda had sailed to Cork in southern Ireland. She left there on that day and sailed straight into a powerful westerly gale with very heavy seas. The ship suffered severe damage during the storm and Capt Honeyman decided to try to put into Milford Haven to find shelter and make repairs to the ship. The ship had aboard a pilot, James Garretty. The storm had carried away the ships head-rail, her bumpkins were damaged as was her rudder and her boats had been stoved in. On reaching the entrance to Milford Haven, HMS Leda ran aground at high water on the rocks at West Angle Bay. She lowered a boat with a kedge anchor to try to drag herself off the rocks. To try to lighten the ship, her masts were cut away but the ship remained stuck fast. Seas were beginning to break over her and on the advice of the local quarantine master who had come aboard, HMS Leda was abandoned in the early hours of January 25th. For the three weeks following the wreck, it was possible to get out to the ship at low water and this opportunity was taken to retrieve stores and equipment. After the ship had been stripped, she was abandoned as a total loss and the sea did the rest over the next few months.
As per normal procedure, Capt Honeyman faced a Court Martial, held aboard the ex-Spanish 112 gun First Rate ship of the line HMS Salvador del Mundo in the Hamoaze, near Plymouth. He was acquitted and the finger of blame was pointed at the pilot James Garretty. He had mistaken Thorn Island for the Stack Rocks and in the poor visibility and heavy rain, had laid the wrong course.
