HMS Leander (1813) - Construction and Commissioning

Construction and Commissioning

HMS Leander was ordered from the Blackwall-based firm of Wigram, Wells & Green on 6 May 1813. She was laid down in June 1813 and built of pitch pine to a design by Sir William Rule. Built of softwood to get her into service as quickly as possible, Leander was launched on 10 November 1813, less than five months after laying down. She was moved to Woolwich Dockyard and completed there by 18 February 1814. The construction of fourth rates, a type that had fallen out of favour prior to the French Revolutionary Wars, was a response to the American spar-decked frigates, like USS Constitution and USS Chesapeake. Ordered alongside Leander was the similar 50-gun HMS Newcastle.

Leander was a spar-deck frigate, designed to carry thirty 24 pounders on her main deck, and twenty-six 42 pounder carronades on her spar deck, with four 24 pounders on her forecastle. This nominal armament was slightly altered during her 1813-18 commission, when two of the carronades on the spar deck were replaced with two extra 24 pounders. She was reported to be fast, exceeding 13 knots, but had a reputation for heavy and violent movements, probably due to poor stowage, until this was fixed in her 1820 commission. In 1815, after the War of 1812 and Napoleonic Wars, Newcastle and Leander were fitted with accommodation for a flag officer with a poop deck built over the quarterdeck, and were mostly used as flagships on foreign stations, replacing older 50-gun ships which had previously filled this role. Both ships were re-rated as 60-gun fourth rates in February 1817.

Leander was commissioned under her first commander, Captain George Collier, in December 1813. Collier had commissioned Newcastle the previous month, but then moved to Leander.