Early Service
She was commissioned in June 1780 under Captain Thomas Shirley. Leander cruised for some time in the North Sea.
At the end of 1781 Leander and the sloop-of-war HMS Alligator sailed for the Dutch Gold Coast with a convoy, consisting of a few merchant-vessels and transports. Britain was at war with the Dutch Republic and Shirley launched an unsuccessful attack on 17 February on the Dutch outpost at Elmina, being repulsed four days later. Leander and Shirley then went on to capture the small Dutch forts at Mouri (Fort Nassau - 20 guns), Kormantine (Courmantyne or Fort Amsterdam - 32 guns; 6 March), Apam (Fort Lijdzaamheid or Fort Patience - 22 guns; 16 March), Senya Beraku (Berricoe, Berku, Fort Barracco or Fort Goede Hoop - 18 guns; 23 March), and Accra (Fort Crèvecœur or Ussher Fort - 32 guns; 30 March). Leander also destroyed the French store-ship Officeuse, off Senegal, supposed to be worth £30,000. Shirley garrisoned those facilities with personnel from Cape Coast.
Shirley sent two sets of dispatches back to Britain. One set went in the transport sloop Ulysses, which was under the command of Captain Frodsham. The French frigate Fée captured Ulysses and took her into Brest, but not before her captain had weighted the dispatches and thrown them overboard. Shirley's first lieutenant, Mr. Van court, took the second set in the cartel transport Mackerel, which also carried the Dutch governors of the forts to Europe.
Shirley then sailed to the West Indies where towards the end of 1782 as senior captain he became commanding officer prior to the arrival of Admiral Hugh Pigot. Pigot promoted him to captain of the 90-gun HMS Union.
Pigot appointed Captain John Willet Payne to replace Shirley. On 18 January 1783, Leander was escorting a cartel when the two vessels encountered a large French warship at midnight. After an inconclusive engagement of two hours, Leander and her opponent separated. Pigot reported that the French vessel was probably a 74-gun ship of the line. Furthermore, rumour had it that she was the Couronne and that she had gone on to Puerto Rico. On 4 March Leander captured the brig Bella Juditta. Leander was one of the five warships and the armed storeship Sally that shared in the proceeds of the capture on 23 March of the ship Arend op Zee. Captain J. Reynolds took command briefly in 1784 before Leander was paid-off in Portsmouth in April.
She was recommissioned in August 1786, after repairs in 1785. Captain Sir James Barclay commissioned Leander in August 1786 and then sailed her for Nova Scotia on 9 April 1787. She served as flagship for Sir Herbert Sawyer in 1788 until paid off in September. Captain Joseph Peyton, Jr. immediately recommissioned her as the flagship for his father Rear-Admiral Joseph Peyton, Sr. She sailed for the Mediterranean on 22 December.
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