HMS Sceptre (1781)
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HMS Sceptre was a third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on June 8, 1781 at Rotherhithe. As part of Vice Admiral Sir Edward Hughes' squadron, Sceptre saw action as part of the East India squadron. In 1782, she participated in the fourth battle of a bloody campaign between Vice Admiral Hughes and the French Admiral Suffren's squadron. In 1794, under the command of Commodore John Ford, Sceptre assisted in the capture of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In 1795 Sceptre earned her second Battle Honour in Vice Admiral Sir Keith Elphinstone's squadron, which captured a Dutch squadron in Saldanha Bay. Sceptre was lost with all 291 hands during a hurricane in Table Bay, near the Cape of Good Hope, when a series of anchor cables parted in the rising winds.
See HMS Sceptre for other ships of the same name.