LEVIATHAN (74) Built in 1790, Chatham. Hulk in 1816.

  Capt. Hugh Seymour Conway, -/1793. She took part in the defeat of the French fleet by Lord Howe on 1 June 1794.

  Captain J. T. Duckworth, 04/1795.   He returned to England in 1797.


  Captain Henry Digby was appointed to LEVIATHAN in the autumn of 1798 as flag captain to Rear Admiral Duckworth in the Mediterranean. With a small squadron of naval vessels and troops under the Hon. Charles Stuart they obtained possession of Minorca without the loss of a man. The naval contingent consisted of 250 seamen and 100 marines from LEVIATHAN and CENTAUR.

  1800 Rear Admiral Duckworth and Captain Carpenter, Lisbon station. On the afternoon of 5 April

  1800 LEVIATHAN and EMERALD sighted 12 sail from the masthead. They fell in with one of them during the night and learned that a convoy of 13 had sailed from Cadiz on the 3rd. under convoy of 3 Spanish frigates. A 14-gun-brig bound for Lima was taken the next morning by the boats of the two ships under Lieut. Gregory. Swiftsure was sent to search to the southward, EMERALD to the east while LEVIATHAN stood to the westward. When EMERALD signalled for 6 sail LEVIATHAN joined her and at 2 o'clock the following morning they discovered two frigates who mistook them for part of the convoy. LEVIATHAN called on them to surrender but she and Emerald were forced to fire at them before they struck. The prizes were both 34-gun frigates, CARMEN, DOM FRAQUIN PORCEL, and FLORENTINA, DOM MANUEL NORATES, carrying quicksilver to Lima and victualled for 4 months. The Spaniards lost 2 officers and 21 men killed and 2 officers and 26 men wounded. Eleven merchantmen were taken. The two frigates were taken into the Royal Navy under the same names as 36 gun ships.

  In the autumn Rear Admiral Duckworth was Commander-in-Chief Barbados and Leeward Is. LEVIATHAN was at Guadeloupe when Captain Carpenter, being indisposed, left her in October to take passage home in the CHARLOTTE, a merchant ship with Captain Taylor of DROMEDARY which had been wrecked off Trinidad.

  1801 Rear Admiral Duckworth and Capt. Edward Durnford King, 09/1800, Leeward Is. station.
After deciding not to wait for reinforcements, Rear Admiral Duckworth and Lieut. Gen. Trigge sailed on 16 March from Barbados with the 1,500 troops that were available to attack the islands of St. Bartholomew, St. Martin's and St. Thomas'. The squadron consisted of LEVIATHAN, ANDROMEDA, UNITE, DRAKE, ECLAIR and ALEXANDRIA. They were joined later by PROSELYTE with reinforcements from England and COROMANDEL and HORNET. The islands were taken without much opposition. Capt. King removed to ANDROMEDA.

  1805 Capt. Henry William Bayntun, Mediterranean.

  At Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, LEVIATHAN passed through the enemy line, the third ship after VICTORY in the weather division, and engaged the SANTISIMA TRINIDAD. She closed with the SAN AGUSTIN and forced her surrender. After the battle the prize was set on fire and destroyed. LEVIATHAN lost only 4 men killed and 22 wounded. One seaman, Thomas Main had his arm taken off by a shot but refused the assistance of his shipmates and made his own way to the cockpit.
Although the stump was successfully amputated, he died later of a fever in Gibraltar.

  1807 Under repair at Plymouth.

  1808 Capt. Harvey, North Sea.

  1811 Ditto, Mediterranean.

  1812 Capt. Patrick Campbell, Gulf of Venice.

  He removed to LEVIATHAN from UNITE.

  1814 Capt. Adam Drummond to the West Indies on 6 January.

  1815 Capt. Thomas Briggs, Lisbon.

Taken from  Michael Philip's Ships of the Old Navy.