HMS Scepter (1781)

Ordered on February 5, 1777 , reordered on January 16, 1779 . Approved on February 11, 1779 . Laid down in May 1780 . Launched June 8, 1781 at a private shipyard John Randall & Co. in Rotherheit. It was completed and clad with copper on August 17, 1781 at the royal shipyard in Deptford .

John Williams' drawings were approved on February 26, 1777. The project was a small copy of the 74-gun Albion Slade type, which in turn was based on the 90-gun HMS Neptune (1730) , built under the Code of 1719 . Thus, the project was already over 60 years old at the time of the launch of the head inflexible . In the finished ship, they found flaws in terms of driving performance, more than 64-guns were not built according to this drawing. ^[2]

American Revolutionary War and After

1781 - entered service in January, captain William Allen ( English William Allen ); fall with the Darby fleet.

1782 - Captain Samuel Graves; On February 6, with the squadron of Sir Richard Bickerton, he left for the East Indies and arrived on July 13 ; September 3 with the squadron of Vice Admiral Hughes was at Trincomalee .

1783 - April 14 took the 20-gun French Naiade ; June 20 was at Kuddalor .

1784 - went to England with King; June, put into reserve and calculated; August, prepared to suck.

1785 - January-July, minor repairs in Portsmouth .

French Revolutionary Wars

1793 - commissioned in March, captain James Dacre ( born James Dacres ); April-May, equipment at Portsmouth, then with Lord Howe’s fleet. ^[2]

On July 14, he left St. Helens with the Canal Fleet ; July 18 was to the West of Scilly , then maneuvering in the fleet; July 31 discovered the French, but could not get close; August 10, returned to Torbay ; October 27 went in search of the French fleet and individual squadrons; November 18, a short skirmish with the French squadron; by mid-December, the fleet returned to Spithead . ^[four]

According to other sources, on November 1, Scepter went to Jamaica .

1794 - May-June, in operations at San Domingo . ^[2]

On May 31, HMS Irresistible , HMS Belliqueux , Scepter , (Captain Augustus Brown, English Augustus Brine ), HMS Europa , three frigates and three sloops , leaving Molle Saint Nicolas, arrived with troops to Port au Prince ; On June 1, in support of the landing, Scepter and HMS Penelope bombarded the fort , with additional support for Europa and Irresistible ; the landing was commanded by the captain of the HMS Fly sloop, Thomas Affleck . ^[four]

1795 - Captain William Essington, the flagship of Vice Admiral McBride , North Sea ; March 12, went to the East Indies.

1796 - August 17 was during the surrender of the Dutch squadron in the bay of Saldanha .

1797 - March, Captain Thomas Alexander (later Thomas Alexander ), later Captain Valentine Edwards ( English Valentine Edwards ). ^[2]

1798 - May 29 was at Cape of Good Hope while detaining a Danish "merchant" Christianus Septimus with a flight from Batavia to Copenhagen , with a load of coffee and sugar; the prize was transferred to the Admiralty Court . ^[four]

1799 - September 19 at about. Rodriguez destroyed the 10-gun corsair L'Éclair ; November 5 crashed in Canteen Bay (about 300 people drowned). ^[2]

Doom

On November 5, 1799, Scepter (Captain Valentine Edwards) and 7 other ships anchored in Canteen Bay were captured by a storm on the leeward . At 10:30 in the morning, the captain ordered to lower the rods , as well as the focus and grotto-rei, to reduce the wind pressure on the mast . At noon, marking the day of the Gunpowder plot , the ship fired fireworks , apparently considering itself safe. However, in the next half hour, the anchor ends of the anchor and then the additional anchor burst. Around 7 p.m., the ship was thrown onto a reef at Woodstock Beach, at the site of the modern Royal Cape Yacht Club. The ship was divided into parts, 349 people were killed or drowned. 1 officer, 2 midshipmen, 47 sailors and 1 marines escaped, but 9 of them died ashore.

List of officers rescued on November 5 or on shore:

Marine Corps : James Pengelly, Thomas Tuder Tucker, Alexander Jones Hon. Alexander Jones , Douglas John Bury, physician ; J. Dredge , battalion , lieutenants : N.J. Willoughby , disabled person; R. Smart ( R. Smart ); William Dredge ( Wm Dredge ), disabled person: B. W. Mac-Gibbon (BW M'Gibbon), marine, the same; James Shaw, Navigator Assistant; midshipman ; James Sphynx ,; JH Buddie ( JH Buddie ), Stephen Popham ( Stephen Popham ), James Pettel ( James Pettel ), Charles W. Chalmers ( Chas. W. Chalmers ), John Thompson ( John Thompson ); teacher Thomas Tringham, chaplain ; Bossell (Mr. Bossell ), a carpenter , as well as 109 sailors and marines.

The officers listed below died:

• Valentine Edwards, captain;
• Mann, Lieutenant
• Bartlett, lieutenant;
• Edward Bones (Mr. Edward Bones ), master;
• Alexander Baxter (Mr Alexander Baxter ), Pushkar ;
• Robinson ( Boatswain )

Michman:

• Barlow (Mr. Barlow ),
• W. Edwards
• T. Giles Kilburne
• James Tucker

and with them about 280 sailors and marines. ^[four]

• Ships of the old navy
• Naval database

• Lavery, B. The Ship of the Line. The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. - Conway Maritime Press, 2003. - Vol. I. - ISBN 0-85177-252-8 .
• Navies and the American Revolution, 1775-1783 / Robert Gardiner, ed. - Chatham Publishing, 1997. - ISBN 1-55750-623-X .
• Winfield, Rif. British Warships of the Age of Sail 1714-1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates . Seaforth, Chatham-St. Paul, 2007 .-- ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6 .