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The Royal New Zealand Navy

Appendix II — RECORD OF HMS LEANDER

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Appendix II
RECORD OF HMS LEANDER

FIRST LEANDER, 1780:

1782: Reduction of Accra and other Dutch forts on the Gold Coast.

The first Leander was a fourth rate ship of 1000 tons and mounted 52 guns, her complement being 340. In 1783, while on convoy duty in the West Indies, she sighted a French ship of the line and with great daring engaged her more powerful adversary. The enemy, on attempting to board, was repulsed with great slaughter. After two hours' desperate fighting, though reduced to a wreck, three times set on fire, and repeatedly attacked by boarders, she put the Frenchman to flight.

When Nelson made his ill-fated attack on Santa Cruz in 1797 (when he lost his arm), Leander formed one of his squadron. The following year she fought in the Battle of the Nile and, a fortnight later, was entrusted by Nelson to take home the news of his victory. As bad luck would have it, Leander fell in with a French ship of the line, the Genereux, whose broad-side was double and whose crew was treble that of Leander. Nothing daunted, Leander engaged the enemy. After a gallant action lasting six hours she was forced to surrender. She could not strike her colours as no mast was left standing, so a French Jack was bent on to a boarding pike. Of her crew, already depleted from the Battle of the Nile, 100 were killed or wounded. The captain lost his leg. The Genereux had 300 casualties. The captain, Captain T. B. Thompson, was court-martialled for the loss of his ship and subsequently knighted for his gallantry.

The ship's crest and motto are derived from this action.

1799: Leander was taken from the French by a Russian and Turkish force at the capture of Corfu and was restored to Britain by the Russian Emperor.

1805: In February Leander captured the French Ville de Milan (48 guns) with her prize taken a week previously, the British Cleopatra (38 guns).

1817: The ship was sold for £2100.

SECOND LEANDER, 1814:

The second Leander was a frigate of 1600 tons, mounted 60 guns, and had a crew of 500. She took part in the war against the United States. In 1816 she formed part of the punitive expedition against the Dey of Algiers, whose pirates were a constant menace to shipping in the Mediterranean. The defences of Algiers were formidable, the garrison consisting of 40,000 Moors, and the batteries mounted 1000 guns. Leander's casualties were heavy, more than a quarter of the ship's company being killed or wounded. As a result of the bombardment, a thousand Christian slaves were set free and the Dey was made to pay an indemnity of nearly half a million dollars.

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THIRD LEANDER, 1848:

A fourth rate ship of 2000 tons, carrying 50 guns. She took part in the Grimean War. During the famous charge at Balaclava she was stationed at Eupatoria, a Crimean port, to prevent the Russians landing reinforcements. The ship was converted to steam in 1861.

FOURTH LEANDER, 1882:

A second-class cruiser of approximately 4000 tons, mounting ten 6-inch guns and four torpedo-tubes. In 1900 she did good work during a revolution in Panama in protecting the lives and property of foreign residents. In 1904 she was converted into a destroyer depot ship and in that capacity she served at Scapa Flow during the First World War.

FIFTH LEANDER, 1933:

A light cruiser of 7270 tons displacement and 72,000 horsepower, mounting eight 6-inch and eight 4-inch guns. Built at Devonport Dockyard and engined by Vickers-Armstrong Ltd. Launched 1931 and completed 1933. Name ship of a class of five light cruisers, the others being Achilles, Ajax, Neptune, and Orion.

The ship's motto is Qui Patitur Vincit (‘Who suffers, conquers’). The crest consists of ‘An arm in armour holding a lance proper between two lotus flowers argent on wavelets or and vert’.