''Sceptre'' was a

74-gun The "seventy-four" was a type of two- decked sailing ship of the line, which nominally carried 74 guns. It was developed by the French navy in the 1740s, replacing earlier classes of 60- and 62-gun ships, as a larger complement to the recently-de ...

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...

of the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

. Built under the

Ancien Régime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for "ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France {{disambig ...

, she took part in the

naval operations in the American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War saw a series of battles involving naval forces of the British Royal Navy and the Continental Navy from 1775, and of the French Navy from 1778 onwards. Although the British enjoyed more numerical victories, thes ...

. At the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

, she took part in the main actions of the

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted French First Republic, France against Ki ...

, notably the so-called

Glorious First of June The Glorious First of June (1 June 1794), also known as the Fourth Battle of Ushant, (known in France as the or ) was the first and largest fleet action of the naval conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the First French Republic ...

and in Bruix' expedition of 1799. Showing her age by the rise of the

First French Empire The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire (; Latin: ) after 1809, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Eu ...

, she was hulked and eventually broken up.

Career

In 1781 and 1782, she took part in the

, under Admiral de Grasse. She fought at the

Battle of the Chesapeake The Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the Battle of the Virginia Capes or simply the Battle of the Capes, was a crucial naval battle in the American Revolutionary War that took place near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on 5 September 17 ...

and faced HMS Formidable on 12 April 1782 at the

Battle of the Saintes The Battle of the Saintes (known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique), also known as the Battle of Dominica, was an important naval battle in the Caribbean between the British and the French that took place 9–12 April 1782. The Brit ...

Famous Fighters of the Fleet, Edward Fraser, 1904, p.119 under

Louis de Rigaud de Vaudreuil Louis de Rigaud de Vaudreuil (Revel, 17 October 1728 – 1810) was a French Navy officer. He served in the War of American Independence. Biography Rigaud de Vaudreuil was born a younger son of Louis-Philippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil (1691–1763), ...

. In August, ''Sceptre'', ''Astrée'' and , under La Pérouse, raided several English

fur trading The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most ...

posts during the

Hudson Bay Expedition The Hudson Bay expedition was a series of military raids on the North American fur trade, fur trading outposts and fortifications of the British Hudson's Bay Company on the shores of Hudson Bay by a French Navy, French Royal Navy squadron under t ...

, including Fort Prince of Wales. In 1783, she was decommissioned in Brest. On 29 September 1792, she was renamed ''Convention''. She took part in the battle of the

in 1794, engaging and . She later took part in the ''

Croisière du Grand Hiver The ''Croisière du Grand Hiver'' (French "Campaign of the Great Winter") was a French attempt to organise a winter naval campaign in the wake of the Glorious First of June. Context The Glorious First of June had ended on a strategic success f ...

'' winter campaign of 1794–1795, the

Expédition d'Irlande The French expedition to Ireland, known in French as the ''Expédition d'Irlande'' ("Expedition to Ireland"), was an unsuccessful attempt by the French Republic to assist the outlawed Society of United Irishmen, a popular rebel Irish republica ...

of December 1796, and the Bruix' expedition of 1799. On 18 February 1800, Captain

Louis-Marie Le Gouardun Louis-Marie Le Gouardun (Lorient, 9 September 1753 — Lorient, 18 December 1814) was a French Navy officer. Starting his career in the French East India Company, he served under Suffren in the Indian Ocean during the Anglo-French War, and later in ...

took command, until 11 March of the same year. In August, she was renamed ''Marengo'', and was condemned in 1802. She was used as a prison hulk in Brest before being broken up in 1811.

Citations

References

* * * * (1671-1870) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sceptre (1780) Ships of the line of the French Navy 1780 ships