Leda-class frigate

The Leda-class frigates, were a successful class of forty-seven British Royal Navy 38-gun sailing frigates constructed from 1805-1832. Based on a French design, the class came in five major groups, all with minor differences in their design. During their careers, they fought in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. Forty-five of the 47 were eventually scrapped; two still exist.

Origins

The design of the name ship, Leda of 1800, was based on Sané's design for the French Hébé-class frigate. The British 44-gun fifth rate HMS Rainbow captured Hébé in 1782. (The British took Hébé into service as HMS Hebe but in 1805 renamed her HMS Blonde). The class of frigates built to the lines of Leda were in contemporary parlance called the 'Repeat Leda class'.

Pomone, the first ship of the class, was built using Josiah Brindley's patent method of construction which dispensed with wooden 'lodging' and 'hanging knees', oak elements which had to be grown to shape, using instead iron fastenings and iron knees. Oak suitable for shipbuilding had become increasingly difficult to obtain through the long period of warfare.

HMS Leda (1800)

HMS Leda, launched in 1800, was the lead ship of a successful class of forty-seven British Royal Navy 38-gun sailing frigates. Leda's design was based on the French Hébé, which the British had captured in 1782. (Hébé herself was the name vessel for the French Hébé-class frigates. Hébé, therefore, has the rare distinction of being the model for both a French and a British frigate class.) Leda was wrecked at the mouth of Milford Haven in 1808, Capt Honeyman was exonerated of all blame, as it was a pilot error.

Service history

French Revolutionary Wars

Captain George Johnstone Hope commissioned Leda in November 1800. In 1801 he sailed her in the English Channel and to the coast of Egypt.

On 12 March 1801, Leda recaptured Bolton, Captain Watson, a 20-gun letter of marque that had sailed from Demerara to Liverpool some 6 weeks previously in company with Union and Dart. These two vessels were also letters of marque, all carrying valuable cargoes of sugar, coffee, indigo and cotton. During the voyage Union started to take on water so her crew transferred to Bolton. Then Bolton and Dart parted company in a gale. Next, Bolton had the misfortune to meet the French privateer Gironde, which was armed with 26 guns and had a crew of 260 men. Gironde captured Bolton in an hour-long fight that killed two passengers and wounded Watson and five men. Although Gironde was damaged, she had suffered no casualties.Bolton was also carrying ivory, a tiger, and a large collection of birds, monkeys, and the like.