HMS LEOPARD

43" long x 13" Wide x 31" High

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THIS MODEL

62" long x 18" Wide x 48" High

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general information about ALL ship models

all are scratch built -not from a model kit- by a master artisan.

Plank on bulkhead construction (a painstaking process -
each individual plank is added to the hull one at a time).
Built with rare, high quality woods such as ebony,
rosewood and blackwood.

The model rests on a large, polished base
between four arched dolphins.
beautifuly stitched canvas sails.
No plastic parts
metal anchors and machine turned brass cannons.
Significant deck detail.

To build this ship, extensive research was performed using various sources
such as museums, drawings, copies of original plans
and photos of the actual ship.

HISTORY

A very important ship in the annals of Anglo - US relations

Portland-class 4th rate ship of the line
(44.5m × 9.3m × 5.3m). 1,045 tons. Hull: wood.
Armed: 22 × 24pdr, 22 × 12pdr, 4 × 6pdr, 2 × 6pdr.
Designed: Sir John Williams.
Built: Sheerness Dockyard, Eng.; 1790.

HMS Leopard was laid down at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1775,
but ten years later, still in frame,
she was taken to Sheerness, where she was finally launched in 1790.

She saw action in various theatre's of war during the French
Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, including the Mediterranean and
North American stations. She was on duty with the latter in early
1807 when a number of sailors, both British and American citizens,
deserted from HMS Bellisle, Bellona, Triumph, Chichester, Halifax,
and Zenobia, then blockading the
French 74s Patriote and Eole in Chesapeake Bay.

A number of the sailors joined the crew of the 36-gun frigate
USS Chesapeake, and Vice Admiral Sir George Berkeley,
ommander in chief of the North American Station,
despatched HMS Leopard to search the frigate.

On June 22, 1807, Captain Salisbury Pryce Humphreys was stationed
off Cape Henry, Virginia, when he hailed USS Chesapeake,
outward bound for the Mediterranean under Commodore James
Barron.
A boat was sent over with a copy of Berkeley's order,
but Barron refused a request to search his ship and at the same time
ordered the gun deck quietly cleared for battle. The order came too
late,
for no sooner had the boarding party returned to Leopard than the
British opened fire. Three broadsides followed, to be answered by
only
a single cannon shot before Barron surrendered his unready ship.
Humphreys refused to accept the surrender but dispatched
a boarding party to look for deserters, taking three Americans
and the British sailor, who was tried and hanged at Halifax.

Although many subsequently saw in the Chesapeake-Leopard affair
a prelude to the War of 1812, at the time it did little more than strain
diplomatic relations between the United States and Britain.
But even as late as 1843 Allen could regret that, "as has in too
many instances been the case, the spirited conduct of
Vice Admiral Berkeley and of Captain Humphreys was disavowed
by the British government; the British right of search was given up,
and Vice Admiral Berkeley recalled from the North American
command."

Leopard remained on the North American station until 1812 when
she was converted to a troopship. On June 28, 1814, she was en route
from England to Quebec with 475 men of Royal Scots Guards
when she grounded on Anticosti Island in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence in heavy fog. The ship was a total loss,