HMS Leopard (1790)

The Chesapeake–Leopard affair
History
United Kingdom
Name	Leopard
Ordered	16 October 1775 Reordered in May 1785
Builder	Portsmouth Dockyard (1775) Sheerness Dockyard (1785)
Laid down	January 1776 (Portsmouth) 7 May 1785 (Sheerness)
Launched	24 April 1790
Completed	By 26 May 1790
Reclassified	Troopship in 1812
Honours and awards	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"[1]
Fate	Wrecked on 28 June 1814
General characteristics
Class and type	50-gun Portland class fourth rate
Tons burthen	1,055 75⁄94 (bm)
Length	146 ft 5 in (44.6 m) (overall) 120 ft 0+3⁄4 in (36.6 m) (keel)
Beam	40 ft 8 in (12.4 m)
Depth of hold	17 ft 6 in (5.33 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	350
Armament	Upper deck: 22 × 12-pounder guns Lower deck: 22 × 24-pounder guns QD: 4 × 6-pounder guns Fc: 2 × 6-pounder guns

HMS Leopard was a 50-gun Portland class fourth rate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and was notable for the actions of her captain in 1807, which were emblematic of the tensions that later erupted in the War of 1812 between Britain and America. She was wrecked in 1814.