She was one of the Carnatic class and built to the lines of the COURAGEUX a French prize taken in 1761.
09 December 1779 ordered by the Chatham Drydock at Chatham for the Royal Navy.
May 1782 keel laid down.
09 October 1790 launched under the name HMS LEVIATHAN, three sisters the CARNATIC, COLOSSUS and MINOTAUR.
Tonnage 1.703 ton (bm), dim. 172.3 x 47.9 x 20.9ft.
Armament: Lower deck 28 – 36pdr, upper deck 28 – 18pdr, quarter deck 14 – 9pdr, forecastle 4 – 9pdr,
Crew 640.
1793 Under command of Captain Hugh Seymour Conway.
Took part in the defeat of the French fleet by Lord Howe on 01 June 1794 (Glorious First of June Battle).
April 1795 under command of Captain J.T.Duckworth. He returned to England in 1797.
Autumn 1798 Captain Henry Digby was appointed to LEVIATHAN 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 one man. The naval contingent consisted of 250 seamen and 100 mariners from the LEVIATHAN and CENTAUR.
1880 With on board Rear Admiral Duckworth and under command of Captain Carpenter on the Lisbon Station.
05 April 1800 in the afternoon the LEVIATHAN and EMERALD sighted 12 sails 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.
The boats of the two ships under Lieutenant Gregory took a 14-gun brig bound for Lima the next morning.
HMS SWIFTSURE was sent to search to the southward, EMERALD to the east while LEVIATHAN stood to the westwards. When EMERALD signaled for 6 sails LEVIATHAN joined her and at 2 0’clock the following morning they discovered two frigates who mistook them for part of the Spanish convoy.
LEVIATHAN called on them to surrender but she and EMERALD were forced to fire at them before they struck their colours.
The prizes were both 34-gun frigates the CARMEN under command of Dom Fraquin Porcel and FLORENTINA under command of Dom Manuel Norates, both 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 of 1800 Rear Admiral Duckworth was commander-in-Chief Barbados and Leeward Isl.
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.
September 1800 under command of Captain Edward Durnford King, still as flagship of Rear Admiral Duckworth.
1800 Leeward Island Station.
After deciding not to wait for reinforcements, Rear Admiral Duckworth and Lieutenant General Trigge sailed on 16 March 1801 from Barbados with the 1500 troops that were available to attack the island of St Bartholomew, St Martin’s and St Thomas. The squadron consisted of LEVIATHAN, ANDROMEDA, UNITE, DRAKE, ÉCLAIR and ALEXANDRIA.
PROSELYTE later joined them with reinforcements from England and COROMANDEL and HORNET.
The islands were taken without much opposition.
Captain King removed to ANDROMEDA.
1805 Under command of Captain Henry William Bayntun in the Mediterranean.
21 October 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar was she the fourth in the column led by HMS VICTORY.
She entered the enemy line astern of HMS NEPTUNE and followed HMS CONQUEROR, all three discharged full broadsides into the BUCENTAURE (50-guns), the flagship of the French Admiral Villeneuve.
After she had passed her she engaged the Spanish SANTISSIMA TRINIDAD (136-guns) and attempted to come up to the French NEPTUNE (84-guns), but the latter stood away and LEVIATHAN instead fired into the Spanish SAN AUGUSTIN (74-guns).
Close action followed until at 3.30 p.m. LEVIATHAN ran her on board and the SAN AUGUSTIN surrendered.
While the San Augustine lay alongside her portside after being boarded, LEVIATHAN was hotly engaged on her opposite side by the French INTRÉPIDE (74-guns), but as the HMS ORION, AFRICA and other British ships moved in the INTRÉPIDE pulled away.
The SAN AUGUSTIN was later burnt after the crew had been removed as being so badly damaged as to be useless for future service.
During the battle the LEVIATHAN lost 4 men and had 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 fever in Gibraltar.
1807 Under repair at Plymouth.
1808 Under command of Captain J.Harvey in the North Sea.
1811 In the Mediterranean.
1812 Under command of Captain Patrick Campbell in the Gulf of Venice.
06 January 1814 under command of Captain Adam Drummond in the West Indies.
1815 Under Captain Thomas Briggs at Lisbon Station.
October 1816 hulked and she became a convict ship in Portsmouth.
October 1846 target ship.
07 August 1848 sold to Mr. Burns, and broken up.
The other vessel depict on the stamp is the INTRÉPIDE of which the details and history are given. See index.
Jamaica 2005 $70 sg?, scott1019
Source: mostly copied from http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/L.HTM http://www.treeforall.org.uk/trafalgar/ ... Leviathan/ The Sail and Steam Navy List by Lyon & Winfield.