The three
San Fulgencio-class ships were ordered on 16 May 1786. The exact date that
San Leandro was
laid down at the Royal Dockyard at
Ferrol is unknown, but she was
launched on 27 November 1787. She arrived at
Cádiz on 12 January 1788 and conducted her
sea trials from
Cartagena as part of a
squadron under the command of
Rear Admiral () Cordova. The ship was
careened and had her bottom
coppered in June–July at the
Arsenal de la Carraca near Cádiz.
San Leandro was intermittently under Cordova's command for the next two years. She helped to transport troops from Cádiz to the
North African enclave of
Ceuta in August 1790. The ship was careened and recoppered upon her return at the Arsenal de la Carraca.
San Leandro was placed
in ordinary at Ferrol on 27 December. The ship was part of a fleet that departed Cádiz on 15 April, bound for
Havana,
Spanish Cuba, where it arrived two months later.
San Leandro served in the Spanish West Indies for the next eight years. When the Spanish were forced to evacuate the
Captaincy General of Santo Domingo by the terms of the
Peace of Basel in 1795, the Spanish citizens were give a
year to evacuate the colony.
San Leandro transported some of these refugee families to Havana in July 1796. She was scheduled for careening at Havana in December 1801 and was recommissioned in June 1802. The ship was awaiting timber and supplies to recommission on 23 March 1804 and was able to sail from Havana to Cádiz in June–August.
San Leandro was careened and recoppered in February 1805 at the Arsenal de la Carraca.
Battle of Trafalgar '' was breaking into the Franco-Spanish line Having fought the inconclusive
Battle of Cape Finisterre on 22 July against a British fleet that attempted to intercept his combined Franco-Spanish fleet returning from the
West Indies, Vice Admiral
Pierre-Charles Villeneuve decided to disobey his orders to rendezvous with the French ships at
Brest because his ships needed repairs and many crewmen were sick. He ultimately arrived at Cádiz on 20 August. Like the British
Royal Navy, the Royal Spanish Navy recruited soldiers and
landsmen that required training and time at sea to become competent. Numbers of both exceeded requirements aboard the ships in Cádiz, but the critical shortage lay in insufficient numbers of trained naval
artillerymen.
San Leandros crew consisted of 347 sailors, 202
infantrymen and 57 naval
gunners. The main body of the combined fleet was able to exit the
Bay of Cádiz on 20 October. Once night fell, they could see British signal lights and flares at a distance that they estimated to be only two miles away. Villeneuve ordered his ships to form
line of battle and then ordered a turn to the south east. In the darkness, these commands were more than the inexperienced crews could easily handle and the combined fleet could only form into several ragged lines. When dawn broke, Villeneuve saw that Nelson had put his ships in a position threaten his rear; Villeneuve decided to reverse course to protect his rear and move closer to refuge in Cádiz despite the very light winds that morning. His command ruined whatever semblance of order the combined fleet had as each ship had to maneuver as best they could as they each handled differently in the light winds. In addition, many of the bigger ships were driven to the east by the ocean's swell. Villeneuve's neat organization of three divisions, each of seven ships and Gravina's Squadron of Observation as the tactical reserve had been replaced by chaos with ships scattered across the sea. By the time that
Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson's ships in two columns were approaching the combined fleet around noon, it had shaken itself into a rough curved line, although the ships were not evenly spaced apart with large gaps between clusters of ships.
San Leandro had been assigned to the Villeneuve's center
division and was the rearmost ship in that formation, As the British 98-gun closed on the combined fleet's
battle line, she was engaged by
San Leandro and the Spanish 74-gun at long range. By about 1330, the two ships were firing on . Later in the day,
San Leandro helped to drive off the British ships pursuing the Spanish 112-gun .
San Leandro was one of the few ships from the combined fleet that was able to reach the Bay of Cádiz the following morning. While the ship was only lightly damaged and had suffered eight men killed and twenty-two wounded during the battle, her masts had been damaged. The
main and
mizzen masts were blown out of the ship by a violent squall that arose that afternoon. She began repairs on 3 November which were completed by 28 April 1806. She spent the next several years blockaded in Cádiz until Spain switched sides on 14 June 1808 and the Peninsular War began.
Subsequent activities San Leandro finished having her bottom recoppered in January 1809 and escorted a convoy to
La Guaira, Venezuela, and
Veracruz, Mexico, beginning on 9 April. On the return voyage, the convoy arrived in Havana, on 30 August with heavy storm damage. There it loaded
bullion and goods worth eight million
pesos. The ship was damaged in a storm off
Bermuda on 6 November and had to put into
San Juan, Puerto Rico, for temporary repairs and then proceeded to Havana for permanent repairs on 12 March 1810. Upon her arrival,
San Leandro was placed in ordinary and disarmed. She was abandoned in place until the ship was wrecked in 1814. ==Citations==