Leander affair

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, . 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.

Early service

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 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 , off Senegal, supposed to be worth £30,000. Shirley garrisoned those facilities with personnel from Cape Coast.

Shirley sent two sets of dispatches back to Britain. One set went in the transport sloop ''Ulysses'', which was under the command of Captain Frodsham. The French frigate ''Fée'' captured ''Ulysses'' and took her into Brest, but not before her captain had weighted the dispatches and thrown them overboard. Shirley's first lieutenant, Mr. Van court, took the second set in the cartel transport ''Mackerel'', which also carried the Dutch governors of the forts to Europe.

Shirley then sailed to the West Indies where towards the end of 1782 as senior captain he became commanding officer prior to the arrival of Admiral Hugh Pigot. Pigot promoted him to captain of the 90-gun .

Pigot appointed Captain John Willet Payne to replace Shirley. On 18 January 1783, ''Leander'' was escorting a cartel when the two vessels encountered a large French warship at midnight. After an inconclusive engagement of two hours, ''Leander'' and her opponent separated. Pigot reported that the French vessel was probably a 74-gun ship of the line. Furthermore, rumour had it that she was the ''Couronne'' and that she had gone on to Puerto Rico. On 4 March ''Leander'' captured the brig ''Bella Juditta''. ''Leander'' was one of the five warships and the armed storeship ''Sally'' that shared in the proceeds of the capture on 23 March of the ship ''Arend op Zee''. Captain J. Reynolds took command briefly in 1784 before ''Leander'' was paid-off in Portsmouth in April.

She was recommissioned in August 1786, after repairs in 1785. Captain Sir James Barclay commissioned ''Leander'' in August 1786 and then sailed her for Nova Scotia on 9 April 1787. She served as flagship for Sir Herbert Sawyer in 1788 until paid off in September. Captain Joseph Peyton, Jr. immediately recommissioned her as the flagship for his father Rear-Admiral Joseph Peyton, Sr. She sailed for the Mediterranean on 22 December.

French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

''Leander'' was recommissioned in May 1795 under Captain Maurice Delgano. On 12 May 1796 she was part of Admiral Duncan's squadron, when , of the squadron, captured the Dutch frigate ''Argo'' and the brig ''Mercury''. The Royal Navy took both ''Argo'' and ''Mercury'' into service: ''Argo'' became and ''Mercury'' became . ''Leander'' shared by agreement in the proceeds of the capture of the ''Vrow Hendrica'', captured on 22 October.

In November 1796 ''Leander'' came under the command of Captain Thomas Boulden Thompson. She then escorted a convoy to Gibraltar on 7 January 1797.

''Leander'' joined the Mediterranean Fleet under Earl St Vincent, and was assigned to the squadron under Horatio Nelson. Thompson took part in Nelson's attack on Santa Cruz in July 1797. Thompson was among the leaders of the landing parties, under the overall direction of Nelson and Thomas Troubridge. Wind hampered the initial attempts to force a landing; the Spanish defenders immediately subjected the successful landing in the evening of 22 July to heavy fire. Still, Thompson's party were able to advance and spike several of the enemy's cannon. However, the British forces had become dispersed throughout the town, and were forced to negotiate a truce to allow them to withdraw. Thompson himself was wounded in the battle. ''Leander'' lost seven men killed, 6 wounded (including Thompson), and one missing.

Nile

Under Captain Thomas Thompson ''Leander'' took part in the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798. She was able to exploit a gap in the French line and anchor between ''Peuple Souverain'' and , from which position she raked both enemy ships while protected from their broadsides. In the battle she suffered only 14 men wounded.

Capture

Carrying Nelson's dispatches from the Nile and accompanied by Sir Edward Berry, ''Leander'' encountered the 74-gun French third rate off Crete on 18 August 1798. In the subsequent action, ''Leander'' lost 35 men killed and 57 wounded, including Thompson. The French suffered 100 killed and 180 wounded, but captured ''Leander''. The French took her into service under her existing name.

The French treated the prisoners badly and plundered almost everything but the clothes the British had on their backs. When Thompson remonstrated with Captain Lejoille of ''Généreux'', Lejoille answered nonchalantly, ''"J'en suis fâché, mais le fait est, que les Français sont bons au pillage."'' ("It makes me angry, but the fact is, the French are good at pillaging.")James (1837), Vol.2, pp.234-236. They refused treatment for Thompson, who had been badly wounded. ''Leander''s surgeon, Mr. Mulberry, was able to remove a musket ball from Thompson's arm only after the vessels reached Corfu on 1 September and he was smuggled aboard the vessel where the French were holding Thompson. Most of the officers returned to Britain on parole but the French detained a number of seamen, and in particular Thomas Jarrat, the carpenter, after he refused to reveal to them the dimensions of ''Leander''s masts and spars. Captain Lejoille tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to get some of the British crew that he had detained to assist him when a Turko-Russian fleet appeared off Corfu. The British refused.

The subsequent court-martial aboard at Sheerness most honourably acquitted Thompson, his officers, and his crew. The court also thanked Berry for the assistance he gave during the battle. As Thompson was rowed back to shore, the crews of all the ships at Sheerness saluted him with three cheers. He was subsequently knighted and awarded a pension of £200 per annum.

''Leander'' was at Corfu when a joint Russian and Ottoman force besieged the island. On 28 February 1799, the Russians and Ottomans attacked Vido, a small island (less than a kilometer across) at the mouth of the port of Corfu. A four-hour bombardment by several ships suppressed all five shore batteries on the island. ''Leander'' and the corvette ''Brune'' tried to intervene but were damaged and forced to retreat to the protection of the batteries of Corfu.

The Russians and Turks recaptured ''Leander'' and ''Brune'' when Corfu capitulated to them on 3 March 1799. The Russians restored ''Leander'' to the Royal Navy. They also gave ''Brune'' to the Ottomans.

Return to British service

''Leander'' was recommissioned in the Mediterranean under Commander Adam Drummond in June 1799. In September Captain Michael Halliday took command.

From July 1801 to June 1802 she refitted at Deptford. She recommissioned in May under Captain James Oughton as flagship for Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell.

In July she sailed for Halifax. Captain Francis Fane took command a year later, in August 1803, with Captain Alexander Skene replacing him in November. On 16 August 1804 ''Leander'' was in company with when they recaptured ''Hibberts''.

She then had three more captains within the year: George Ralph Collier, Oughton again, and from November, John Talbot.

On 23 February 1805, while on the Halifax station, ''Leander'' discovered the French frigate ''Ville de Milan'', under Captain Pierre Guillet, and the British , which ''Ville de Milan'' had captured the day before. The engagement between ''Ville de Milan'' and ''Cleopatra'' had left both ships greatly damaged. Consequently, when they encountered ''Leander'' they struck to ''Leander'' without a fight. ''Leander'' came upon ''Cleopatra'' first, and as soon as she struck, the British prisoners on board her, i.e., her original crew, took possession of her. She then followed ''Leander'' towards ''Ville de Milan'', which too struck. The Navy took ''Ville de Milan'' into service as .

On 3 June ''Leander'' captured ''Nancy''. Three days later she captured ''Elizabeth''. The next day ''Leander'' captured ''Volunteer''. On 12 October, ''Leander'' captured ''Vengeance''. At some point ''Leander'' pressed a seaman from the crew of , which was returning to England from Suriname where she had delivered a cargo of slaves.

Thereafter, in recognition of the capture of ''Ville de Milan'' and the recapture of ''Cleopatra'', the Admiralty promoted Talbot to command of ship of the line .Talbot, Sir John
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', J. K. Laughton, retrieved 25 May 2008

The ''Leander'' affair

HMS ''Leander'' then came under the command of Captains William Lyall and Henry Whitby. ''Leander'', under Slingsby Simpson, and , under John Nairne, were repeatedly stationed off Sandy Hook, ostensibly to keep watch on two French frigates that had taken refuge in the harbour. However, in the summer of 1804, the warships began stopping and boarding all American ships going into New York just outside the United States's three-mile territorial limit, and searching them for any French goods. If anything suspicious was found, the ship was detained and taken to Halifax.

On 25 April 1806, ''Leander'' fired a warning shot over the bow of a merchantman, signalling it to stop. The cannonball passed into the harbour, decapitating John Pierce, the helmsman of the ''Richard'', a small coasting sloop inside the harbour. The sloop's captain, who was Pierce's brother, made his way to New York City, where he gathered a mob that paraded Pierce's body and head through the streets. The next day, an angry mob intercepted a party from ''Leander'' returning to their ship with a load of provisions; the mob seized the provisions and placed them on twenty carts, the lead one bearing a pole flying an American flag and a British one below it. The carts were wheeled around the city as members of the mob beat drums. When the crowd reached Alms House, the provisions were given to the poor, and the British flag was burned. Protest meetings were held over the incident. John Pierce was given a large public funeral. Four of ''Leander''s officers caught ashore were imprisoned for their own protection, and were later secretly released. On 14 June President Thomas Jefferson issued a proclamation against Captain Whitby. He ordered ''Leander'', ''Driver'' and ''Cambrian'' immediately to quit US waters and forbade them ever to return. He extended the same prohibition to all vessels that Captains Whitby, John Nairne and Simpson might command. Whitby was court martialed in England on the charge of murdering John Pierce, but was acquitted.

On 26 April ''Leander'', ''Cambrian'' and ''Driver'' captured the American ship ''Aurora''.

In May Captain Salusbury Pryce Humphreys took command of ''Leander'' at Halifax as she became the flagship for Admiral George Berkeley. Captain Richard Raggett then sailed her back to Britain in 1807.

Fate

By 1807 ''Leander'' was out of commission at Portsmouth. In 1808 she was in Plymouth. In October 1810, ''Leander'' was fitted as a medical depot ship at Portsmouth. In 1813 the Admiralty commissioned a new so the old ''Leander'' was given the name ''Hygeia''. ''Hygeia'' was sold on 14 April 1817 to a Mr. Thomas for £2,100.

Notes

Citations

References

*Crooks, John Joseph (1973) ''Records Relating to the Gold Coast Settlements from 1750 To 1874''. (London: Taylor & Francis).
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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Leander (1780)
Frigates of the Royal Navy
1780 ships
Captured ships