HMS Sceptre ( 1781 ) HMS " Sceptre " was a 64 - gun third - rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy , launched on 8 June 1781 at Rotherhithe . Career . 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 gun s , 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 . Capture of eight Dutch East Indiamen off St Helena . 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 packet ship 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 . On 18 May 1795 , the Dutch brig " Komeet " , under the command of Captain - Lieutenant Mynheer Claris , and the Dutch corvette " Scipio " , under the command of de Jong , set out from Table Bay with a convoy of sixteen East Indiamen , for Europe . Bad weather forced eight Indiamen back to the Cape . These eight sailed again on 22 May . The remaining eight Indiamen , which had sailed on 18 May together with their two escorts , and a private Dutch ship from the Cape , the whaler " Herstilder " , sailed on . All but two of this group reached ports in then - neutral Norway . Essington prevailed upon Colonel Brooke , the governor of St Helena , to lend him some troops and to put the Honourable East India Company ( HEIC ) vessels there at the time to form a squadron to try and intercept the Dutch . Providentially , the " General Goddard " , an East Indiaman under the command of Captain William Taylor Money , was resting at St Helena while on her way back to England . On 3 June , " Sceptre " , " General Goddard " , " Manship " ( also an HEIC ship ) , and " Swallow " set out . Five other HEIC ships set out later , of which only " Busbridge " met up with the squadron . On 10 June the British captured the Dutch Indiaman " Hougly " , which " Swallow " escorted into St Helena , before returning to the squadron with additional seamen . Due to bad weather , " Manship " and " Busbridge " lost contact with Essington ' s squadron . In the afternoon of 14 June , Essington ' s squadron sighted seven sail . At 1 a . m . the next morning " General Goddard " sailed through the Dutch fleet , which fired on her . She did not fire back . Later that morning , after some exchange of shots between the British and Dutch vessels , the Dutch surrendered . The HEIC ships " Busbridge " , Captain Samuel Maitland , and " Asia " , Captain John Davy Foulkes , arrived on the scene and helped board the Dutch vessels . There were no casualties on either side . The British then brought their prizes into St Helena on 17 June . On 1 July , " Sceptre " , " General Goddard " and the prizes sailed from St Helena to gather in other returning British East Indiamen . They then returned to St Helena , where George Vancouver and , which had arrived there in the meantime , joined them . The entire convoy , now some 20 vessels or so strong , sailed from there in August to Shannon , where most arrived on 13 December . ( Three Dutch vessels were lost . " Houghly " was lost on 1 September . " Surcheance " was lost on 5 September . " Zeelelie " escaped and wrecked off the Scilly Islands on 26 September . ) " General Goddard " reached the Downs on 15 October . Because the captures occurred before Britain had declared war on the Batavian Republic , the vessels become Droit s to the Crown . Still , prize money , in the amount of two - thirds of the value of the Dutch ships amounted to £76 , 664 14s . Of this , £61 , 331 15s 2d was distributed among the officers and crew of " Sceptre " , " General Goddard " , " Busbridge " , " Asia " , and " Swallow " . Wrecking . While under the command of Captain Edwards , " Sceptre " was caught at anchor in a storm on 5 November 1799 along with seven other ships in Table Bay , near the Cape of Good Hope . At 10 : 30am , the captain ordered the topmasts struck , and the fore and main yards lowered in order to ease the ship in the strengthening winds . At midday , the ship fired a " feu de joie " on the occasion of the Gunpowder Plot , suggesting no apparent apprehension about the oncoming storm . However within half an hour , the main anchor cable parted followed by the secondary one . At approximately 7pm , the ship was driven ashore onto a reef at Woodstock Beach at the site of the present - day Royal Cape Yacht Club . The ship was battered to pieces , and approximately 349 seamen and marines were killed or drowned . One officer , two midshipmen , 47 seamen and one marine were saved from the wreck , but nine of these died on the beach .