French ship Léopard (1787)

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Léopard.

Léopard was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Léopard (1787), on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris.
History
France
Name	Léopard[1]
Namesake	Leopard (Panthera pardus)
Builder	Brest[1]
Laid down	15 November 1785[1]
Launched	22 June 1787[1]
In service	July 1787[1]
Fate	Scuttled by fire on 12 February 1793[1]
General characteristics [2]
Class and type	Téméraire-class ship of the line
Displacement	1,966 tonnes 3,260 tonnes fully loaded
Length	55.87 metres (183.3 ft) (172 pied)
Beam	14.90 metres (48 ft 11 in)
Draught	7.26 metres (23.8 ft) (22 pied)
Propulsion	Up to 2,485 m2 (26,750 sq ft) of sails
Armament	74 guns: Lower gundeck: 28 × 36-pounder long guns Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder long guns Forecastle and Quarter deck: 16 × 8-pounder long guns 4 × 36-pounder carronades
Armour	Timber

The French Revolution in Brest in September 1790 and the insurrection of the ships of the line, America and Leopard

Career

On 30 October 1788, Léopard departed Toulon for a cruise in the Caribbean, under Captain de la Galissoninère.^[1][3]

On 15 September 1790, a fight between sailors from Léopard and Patriote caused a mutiny; the entire crew of Léopard was expelled from the Navy by a decree of the National Constituent Assembly.^[1]

From 1792, Léopard took part in the Expédition de Sardaigne under Captain Bourdon-Gramont, capturing Carloforte on 8 January 1793. On 17 February, Léopard ran aground in a storm off Cagliari; after two days trying to refloat her, the crew abandoned the ship and set her on fire after offloading the guns and matériel.

See also

• List of ships of the line of France

References

1. Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671 - 1870. p. 278. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
2. Clouet, Alain (2007). "La marine de Napoléon III : classe Téméraire - caractéristiques". dossiersmarine.free.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 23 March 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
3. Les Barrin de la Galissoninère, Pierre Roucou, Le Pallet, Patrie d'Abélard, 2e édition 2003, Association culturelle Pierre Abélard, édition avril 2006.