HMS Cato (1782)
HMS "Cato" was a 50-gun fourth rate launched at Gravesend in 1782. Captain James Clarke commissioned her in May 1782. She sailed on 13 October 1782 for India as the flagship of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker. She left Rio de Janeiro on 12 December 1782 and was never seen again. Stores identified as belonging to "Cato" were later seen on vessels trading in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. The English captain of a vessel belonging to Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah, the Nawab of Arcot, reported in 1791 that he had seen stores that had  come from "Cato" on a Malay boat at Mecca. The Malay on the boat stated that a large ship had wrecked some years earlier on the Malabar Coast. The Malay believed that most of those aboard her had gotten safely ashore but that the Malay king there had most of them put to death immediately. Citations and references. Citations References