HMS Sceptre (1781)
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Career (Great Britain)
Name: HMS Sceptre
Ordered: 16 January 1779
Builder: Randall, Rotherhithe
Laid down: May 1780
Launched: 8 June 1781
Honours and awards:
Participated in:
Battle of Trincomalee
Battle of Cuddalore (1783)
Battle of Muizenberg
Fate: Wrecked in Table Bay, 5 November 1799
Class and type: Inflexible-class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1398 tons (1420.4 tonnes)
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: 64 guns:
Gundeck: 26 × 24 pdrs
Upper gundeck: 26 × 18 pdrs
Quarterdeck: 10 × 4 pdrs
Forecastle: 2 × 9 pdrs
HMS Sceptre was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 8 June 1781 at Rotherhithe.[1] 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.[citation needed]
The following year, she took part in the Battle of Cuddalore (1783), the final battle in the East Indies campaign. She was then laid up for the peace.[citation needed] In 1794, under the command of Commodore John Ford, Sceptre assisted in the capture of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.[citation needed]
On 19 June 1795, Sceptre earned her second Battle Honour in Vice Admiral Sir George Elphinstone's squadron, when she captured a squadron of 19 Dutch East Indiamen in the Battle of Muizenberg.
