Leda class frigate
Encyclopedia
The Leda-class frigates, were a successful class of forty-seven British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
38-gun sailing frigates. The design of Leda
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. Ledas design was based on the French frigate Hébé, which the British had captured in 1782. HMS Leda, launched in 1800, was the lead ship of a successful class of...
was based on the Sané
Jacques-Noël Sané
Jacques-Noël Sané was a French naval engineer, one of the most successful shipbuilders of the Age of Sail.Sané studied under Duhamel du Monceau...
-designed Hébé, a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Hébé class frigate
Hébé class frigate
The Hébé class was a class of six 38-gun frigates of the French Navy, designed in 1781 by Jacques-Noël Sané.* HébéThe Hébé class was a class of six 38-gun frigates of the French Navy, designed in 1781 by Jacques-Noël Sané.* Hébé...
that the British 44-gun fifth rate HMS Rainbow captured in 1782. (The British took Hébé into service as HMS Hebe but in 1805 renamed her HMS Blonde).
The name Leda was taken from Greek mythology, as was common at the time; the Greek Leda
Leda (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Leda was daughter of the Aetolian king Thestius, and wife of the king Tyndareus , of Sparta. Her myth gave rise to the popular motif in Renaissance and later art of Leda and the Swan...
was a woman whom Zeus seduced while he was masquerading as a swan. After Leda, the Admiralty had no more ships to this design for several years. Then with the resumption of war with France either looming or under way, the Admiralty ordered eight further ships to this design in 1802-09:
- HMS Pomone, which was wrecked on The NeedlesThe NeedlesThe Needles is a row of three distinctive stacks of chalk that rise out of the sea off the western extremity of the Isle of Wight, England, close to Alum Bay. The Needles lighthouse stands at the end of the formation...
in 1811. - HMS ShannonHMS Shannon (1806)HMS Shannon was a 38-gun Leda-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806 and served in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812...
, the victor over the USS ChesapeakeUSS Chesapeake (1799)USS Chesapeake was a 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction was authorized by the Naval Act of 1794. Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young navy's capital ships...
, off Boston, on 1 June 1813. - HMS Leonidas
- HMS Briton
- HMS Tenedos
- HMS Lacedemonian
- HMS Lively
- HMS SurpriseHMS Surprise (1812)HMS Surprise was a 38-gun frigate of the Leda class of the Royal Navy, although all these fifth-rate frigates were re-classed as 46-gun under the general re-rating of February 1817, from when carronades on the quarter deck and forecastle were included in the rating...
In 1812 the Admiralty ordered eight ships to be built of "fir" (actually, of red pine) instead of oak; these were sometimes called the Cydnus class:
- HMS CydnusHMS Cydnus (1813)HMS Cydnus was one of eight Royal Navy 38-gun Cydnus-class fifth-rates. This frigate was built in 1813 at Blackwall Yard, London, and broken up in 1816...
- HMS Eurotas
- HMS Niger
- HMS Meander
- HMS PactolusHMS Pactolus (1813)HMS Pactolus was one of eight 38-gun Cydnus-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy, that served in the Napoleonic wars and the War of 1812. She was one of the warships that bombarded Stonington, Connecticut from 9 to 12 August 1814...
- HMS Tiber
- HMS Araxes
- HMS Tanais
The Admiralty ordered seven more vessels to this design (reverting to oak construction) in 1812-15:
- HMS Diamond
- HMS Amphitrite
- HMS TrincomaleeHMS TrincomaleeHMS Trincomalee is a Royal Navy Leda-class sailing frigate built shortly following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. She is now restored as a museum ship in Hartlepool, UK.-History:...
, a sailing frigate that has survived to the present day. - HMS Thetis
- HMS Arethusa
- HMS Blanche
- HMS FisgardHMS Fisgard (1819)HMS Fisgard was a 46-gun fifth rate Leda-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She spent sixty years in service on a variety of duties.-Construction and commissioning:...
Six more vessels of this design were ordered in 1816 but were modified to incorporate Sir Robert Seppings
Robert Seppings
Sir Robert Seppings FRS was an English naval architect.Seppings was born at Fakenham, Norfolk, and in 1782 was apprenticed in Plymouth dockyard...
's circular stern and "small-timber" form of construction):
- HMS Venus
- HMS Melampus
- HMS Minerva
- HMS Latona
- HMS Diana
- HMS Hebe
A further twenty-three ships were ordered to this modified design in 1817, although the last six were never completed, or not completed to this design:
- HMS Nereus
- HMS Hamadryad
- HMS Amazon
- HMS Aeolus
- HMS Thisbe
- HMS Cerberus
- HMS Circe
- HMS Clyde
- HMS Thames
- HMS Fox, completed 1856 as a screw frigate
- HMS UnicornHMS Unicorn (1824)HMS Unicorn and her near-sister ship, HMS Trincomalee, are surviving sailing frigates of the successful Leda class, although the original design had been modified by the time that the Unicorn was built, to incorporate a circular stern and "small-timber" system of construction...
, another sailing frigate that has survived to the present day. - HMS DaedalusHMS Daedalus (1826)HMS Daedalus was a nineteenth century warship of the Royal Navy. She was launched as a fifth-rate frigate of 46 guns in 1826, reduced to 20 guns in 1840....
, completed 1844 as a 19-gun sixth-rate corvette - HMS Proserpine
- HMS Mermaid
- HMS Mercury
- HMS Penelope
- HMS Thalia
The last six ships of the 1817 orders were never completed to this design:
- HMS Pegasus - canceled 1831
- HMS Nemesis - re-ordered to Seringapatam-classSeringapatam class frigateThe Seringapatam class frigates, were a successful class of British Royal Navy 46-gun sailing frigates. The first vessel of the class was HMS Seringapatam. The Seringapatam's design was based on the French frigate Président, which the British had captured in 1806...
design. - HMS Statira - re-ordered to Seringapatam-class design.
- HMS Jason - re-ordered to Seringapatam-class design.
- HMS Druid - re-ordered to Seringapatam-class design.
- HMS Medusa - canceled 1831