HMS Sceptre (1802)
Sceptre.
HMS Sceptre was a Repulse Class 74 gun third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 4th of February 1800, designed by Sir William Rule, laid down in the December of that year, and built by John Dudman at Deptford, She was launched on the 11th of December,1802.
GREAT BRITAIN Name: HMS Sceptre Ordered: 4 February 1800 Builder: Dudman, Deptford Laid down: December 1800 Launched: 11 December 1802 Fate: Broken up, 1821 Class and type: Repulse classship of the line Tons burthen: 1727 (bm) Length: 174 ft (53 m) (gundeck) Beam: 47 ft 4 in (14.43 m) Depth of hold: 20 ft (6.1 m) Propulsion: Sails Sail plan: Full rigged ship Armament: ·GD: 28 × 32-pounder guns
·Upper GD: 28 × 18-pounder guns
·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns
Service.
HMS Sceptre was commissioned in the February of 1803 under Captain Archibald Collingwood Dickson On the 20th of June, after a shakedown period, she came into Plymouth for a refit. She then sailed again on the 28th of that month under the command of Captain Dickson to join the Channel fleet.
The East Indies.
In the July of that same year, she sailed for the East Indies station. She would serve for five years in the East Indies before being transfered to the Caribbean.
Scepter and Albion left Rio de Janeiro on the13th of October, escorting Lord Melville, Earl Spencer, Princess Mary, Northampton, Anna, Ann, Glory, and Essex. They were in company with the 74-gunthird-rateships of the lineHMS Russell, and the fourth-rateHMS Grampus. Three days later Albion and Scepter separated from the rest of the ships.
On the 21st of December, Sceptern and Albion captured the French privateer Clarisse in the eastern Indian Ocean. Clarisse was armed with 12 guns and had a crew of 157 men. She had sailed from Isle de France on the 24th of November with provisions for a six-month cruise to the Bay of Bengal. At the time of her capture she had not captured anything. Albion, Sceptre, and Clarisse arrived at Madras on the 8th of January, 1804.
On 28 February 1804, Albion and Sceptre met up in the straits of Malacca with the fleet of Indiamen that had just emerged from the Battle of Pulo Aura and conducted them safely to Saint Helena. From there HMS Plantagenet escorted the convoy to England.
Later inthe year,Captain Joseph Bingham, formerly of St Fiorenzo, took command of Sceptre. He was to remain her captain until 1809. On the11th of November, 1806, Sceptre and Cornwallis, under Captain Johnston made a dash into St. Paul's Bay, Isle de Bourbon, and attacked the shipping there, which consisted of the frigate Sémillante, three armed ships and twelve captured British ships. (The eight ships that had been earlier taken by Sémillante were valued at one and a half million pounds.) However, what little breeze there was soon failed, and the two ships found it difficult to manoeuvre and were unable to recapture any of the prizes.
In 1808, Sceptre, in company with Cornwallis, engaged and damaged Sémillante, together with the shore batteries that she sought to protect. Sceptre and Cornwallis, much affected by scurvy, then retired to Madagascar for their crews to recuperate.
Sceptre then returned home, accompanied by two homeward-bound Danish East Indiamen that Captain Bingham had captured off the Cape of Good Hope. On her return to Britain, she was paid off.
Between the August of 1808 and the June of 1809 Sceptre underwent a small repair at Chatham. In March Bingham recommissioned her and joined Sir Richard Strachan in the expedition to the Scheldt.
The West Indies station.
Sceptre sailed for the Leeward Islands on the 8th of November of that year During the passage from England Captain Samuel James Ballard trained his crew in the use of the broadsword. This later proved of value when they were used ashore.
Ballard and Sceptre arrived off Martinique with Alfred and Freya (or Freya) under his orders, to find that about 150 miles to the windward of Guadaloupe four French frigates had captured and burnt Junon, belonging to the Halifax squadron.
On 18 December, Sceptre, Blonde, Thetis, Freya, Castor, Cygnet, Hazard, Ringdove, and Elizabeth proceeded to attack two French flûtes, Loire and Seine anchored in Anse à la Barque ("Barque Cove"), about nine miles (14 km) to the northwest of the town of Basse-Terre. Blonde, Thetis and the three sloops bore the brunt of the attack but forced the French to abandon their ships and set fire to them. Captain Cameron, who was killed in the attempt, landed with the boats of Hazard and destroyed the shore batteries. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Anse la Barque 18 Decr. 1809", to all surviving claimants from the action.
Towards the end of January 1810, under the temporary command of Captain Edward Dix during the January and February of that year, Sceptre escorted a division of the troops destined for the attack on Guadaloupe from St. Lucia to the Saintes. While other troops were landed on the island the ship created a diversion off Trois-Rivières before landing her troops and marines between Anse à la Barque and Basse-Terre. Until the surrender of the island, Captain Ballard commanded the detachment of seamen and marines attached to the army. Sceptre visited most of the West Indian islands before sailing from St. Thomas in August with the homebound trade.
In the Channel.
She arrived at Spithead on the 25th of September, 1810 and was docked and refitted. Sceptre was employed in the Channel watching the enemy in Brest and the Basque Roads .after the September of 1811 she was commanded by Captain Sir Edward Berry. In 1812 she came under Captain Thomas Harvey, until the January of 1813 when Captain Robert Honeymantook command and sailed for North America.
The War of 1812.
Later in the year, Captain Charles Ross, took command of Sceptre as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn for operations against the United States. On the 11th of July, Sceptre, with Romulus, Fox, Nemesis, and Conflict and the tenders Highflyer and Cockchafer, anchored off the Ocracoke bar, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. They had on board troops under the orders of Lieutenant Colonel Napier. An advanced division of the best pulling boats commanded by Lieutenant Westphall and carrying armed seamen and marines from Sceptre attacked the enemy's shipping. They were supported by Captain Ross with the rocket-boats. The flat and heavier boats followed with the bulk of the 102nd Regiment and the artillery.
The only opposition came from a brig, Anaconda, of 18 guns, and a privateerschooner, Atlas of 10 guns, which were the only armed vessels in the anchorage. When Lieutenant Westphall attacked, supported by rockets, the Americans abandoned Anaconda and Atlas struck. The troops took possession of Portsmouth Island and Ocracoke Island without opposition. The British took the two prizes into service as Anaconda and St Lawrence.
On the 12th of May in that year, Sceptre recaptured the letter of marqueFanny. The capture and recapture of Fanny, together with Sceptre's claim for salvage, gave rise to several important legal cases.
In 1814 she came under the command of several captains. Firstly, John Devonshire, followed by Alexander Skene, and lastly William Waller. On her return home in the August of that year she was laid up at Chatham.
Fate.
On recommissioning, Sceptre spent her final year in the Channel on the blockade of the French fleet.
Sceptre was then decommissioned at Chatham. And went into ordinary. She was finally broken up there in the February of 1821.
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