HMS Leopard (1790)

HMS "Leopard" was a British 50-gun 4th rate warship involved in the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair. Her keel was laid down in 1775 at Portsmouth Dockyard and she was finally launched in 1790 from Sheerness. In early 1807, a number of British and American sailors deserted their respective ships, then blockading French ships in Chesapeake Bay, and joined the crew of the USS "Chesapeake".

In an attempt to recover deserted British sailors (or possibly to press American sailors into the service of the Royal Navy), Captain Salisbury Pryce Humphreys hailed the USS "Chesapeake" and requested permission to search it. Commodore of the "Chesapeake", James Barron, refused, and the "Leopard" opened fire. The former surrendered, and Humphreys boarded to search for deserters. The boarding party captured four deserters from the Royal Navy — two African-born Americans, one U.S.-born American and one British-born sailor — and took them to Halifax, where the British-born sailor, Jenkin Ratford, was later hanged. Though many subsequently believed the affair to be a prelude to the War of 1812, at the time it did little more than strain diplomatic relations between the United States and Britain.

In 1812, the "Leopard" was converted to a troopship. On June 28, 1814, she was en route from Britain to Quebec when she grounded on Anticosti Island in heavy fog. The ship was destroyed but none of those on board were lost.

The "Leopard" in fiction

In Patrick O'Brian's novel "Desolation Island", the fifth book of the Aubrey–Maturin series, Jack Aubrey commands the "Leopard" on a cruise through the Atlantic and Indian oceans after the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair and before the beginning of the War of 1812.