HMS Sceptre (1781)
| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain
|
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| Name: | HMS Sceptre |
| Ordered: | 16 January 1779 |
| Builder: | Randall, Rotherhithe |
| Laid down: | May 1780 |
| Launched: | 8 June 1781 |
| Fate: | Wrecked in Table Bay, 5 November 1799 |
| Notes: |
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| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Inflexible-class ship of the line |
| Tons burthen: | 1398 (bm) |
| Length: | 159 ft (48 m) (gundeck) |
| Beam: | 44 ft 4 in (13.51 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 18 ft 10 in (5.74 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Armament: | |
HMS Sceptre was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 8 June 1781 at Rotherhithe.
Shortly after completion she was sent out to the Indian Ocean to join Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes's squadron. She arrived in time for the Battle of Trincomalee in 1782. This was the fourth battle of a bloody campaign between Vice-Admiral Hughes and the French Admiral Suffren's squadron.
The following year, she took part in the Battle of Cuddalore (1783), the final battle in the East Indies campaign. In the run-up to the battle Sceptre captured the Naïade, under captain Villaret, on the night of 11 April 1783.Naïade was armed with eighteen to twenty 8-pounder guns and ten swivel guns, and had a crew of 160 men. The British took her into service but never commissioned her; they then sold her in August 1784.
She was then laid up for the peace. In 1794, under the command of Commodore John Ford, Sceptre assisted in the capture of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
On 12 March 1795, under the command of Captain William Essington, Sceptre sailed for the Cape of Good Hope as escort to fleet of East Indiamen sailing to India and China.
When Sceptre arrived at St Helena she brought the news that France had invaded the Netherlands in January. Furthermore, under an order dated 9 February 1795, Royal Navy vessels and British letters of marque were to detain Dutch vessels and cargoes and bring them into British ports that they might be detained provisionally. Then on 2 June the British East India Company packet ship Swallow arrived from the Cape of Good Hope with the news than a convoy of Dutch East Indiamen had left the Cape, sailing for the Netherlands.
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