Richard Leake (c. 1629 – 1696) was an English naval officer and master-gunner of England.

Life

Richard Leake, son of Richard Leake, was born at

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-o ...

in 1629. According to Martin Leake's biography of Sir John Leake, he served under his father in the Navy under the Parliament, but being a

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...

at heart took an opportunity of deserting and entered the King's service. His Majesty's affairs proving very unfortunate, more especially by sea, he went to Holland and served in the Dutch army. It does not, however, appear that the elder Leake commanded a state's ship, and the only service of the King at sea that the lad can have entered was the semi-piratical squadron under

Prince Rupert Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, (17 December 1619 ( O.S.) 7 December 1619 (N.S.)– 29 November 1682 (O.S.) December 1682 (N.S) was an English-German army officer, admiral, scientist, and colonial governor. He first rose to ...

. After being some time in Holland he was able to return to England, and commanded a merchant ship in several voyages to the Mediterranean. At the Restoration he was appointed gunner of the ''Princess'', and in her fought in many severe actions during the

Second Dutch War The Second Anglo-Dutch War, began on 4 March 1665, and concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Breda on 31 July 1667. It was one in a series of naval wars between England and the Dutch Republic, driven largely by commercial disputes. Despi ...

. In one, in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

, on 20 April 1667, the ''Princess'' was engaged with seventeen vessels, apparently

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

privateers A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

, and though hard pressed succeeded in beating them off. She then went to Gottenburg, and in the return voyage was attacked by two Danish ships on 17 May. The captain and master were killed, the lieutenant was badly wounded, and the command devolved on Leake, who after a stubborn fight beat them off and brought the ship safely to the Thames. He was given 30 ''l''., and by warrant, 13 August 1667, was appointed "one of his majesty's gunners within the Tower of London, in consideration of his good and faithful service to his majesty during the war with the French, Danes, and Dutch". In May 1669 he was promoted to be gunner of the ''Royal Prince'', a first rate, which carried the flag of Sir Edward Spragge in the battle with the Dutch of 10 August 1673. The ''Royal Prince'' was dismasted; many of her guns were dismounted; some four hundred of her men were killed or wounded; Spragge had shifted his flag to the ''St. George''; and a large Dutch ship with two fireships bore down on her, making certain of capturing or of burning her. It is said that Rooke (afterwards Sir George), her first lieutenant and commander, judging further defence impossible, ordered the

colours Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorpt ...

to be struck, and that Leake countermanding the order, and sending Rooke off the quarterdeck, took the command on himself, saying, "The Royal Prince shall never be given up while I am alive to defend her". His two sons, Henry and John, gallantly supported him; the men recovered from their panic; the

fireships A fire ship or fireship is a large wooden vessel set on fire to be used against enemy ships during a ramming attack or similar maneuver. Fireships were used to great effect against wooden ships throughout naval military history up until the ad ...

were sunk, the man-of-war beaten off, and the ''Royal Prince'' brought to Chatham, but Henry Leake, the eldest son, was killed.''The Old and True Way of Manning the Fleet, or how to retrieve the Glory of the English Arms by Sea'', 1707, p. 15. The story is probably founded on fact, but is certainly much exaggerated. The ''Royal Prince'' being unserviceable, Leake was moved into the ''Neptune'', and shortly afterwards was given the command of one of the yachts, and appointed also to be master-gunner of Whitehall. By patent, 21 May 1677, he was constituted master-gunner of England and storekeeper of his Majesty's ordnance and stores of war at

Woolwich Woolwich () is a town in South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was mainta ...

. In 1683 he attended Lord Dartmouth to

Tangier Tangier ( ; , , ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the capital city, capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture of Moroc ...

to demolish the fortifications. He is described as skilful and ingenious in his art, as the originator of the method of igniting the fuzes of shell by the firing of the mortar, and as the contriver of the "infernals" used at St. Malo in 1693. He invented also what seems to have been a sort of

howitzer The howitzer () is an artillery weapon that falls between a cannon (or field gun) and a mortar. It is capable of both low angle fire like a field gun and high angle fire like a mortar, given the distinction between low and high angle fire break ...

, which is spoken of as a "cushee-piece", to fire shell and carcasses; in theory it seemed a formidable arm, but in practice it was found more dangerous to its friends than to its enemies, and never came into general use. In practising with it at Woolwich Leake's youngest son, Edward, was killed in September 1688. Leake died and was buried at

in July 1696. One son, John, and a daughter, Elizabeth, survived him.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leake, Richard 1620s births 1696 deaths Royal Navy captains