Sceptre's anchors fail in Table Bay

Sceptre lay at anchor in Table Bay in November 1799 when strengthening winds turned routine precautions into a survival crisis. Captain Valentine Edwards had already struck the topmasts and lowered yards to ease the ship, but the main anchor cable parted and the second cable also failed. The ship was driven onto a reef at Woodstock Beach and battered apart. One officer, two midshipmen, forty-seven seamen, and one marine reached shore, and nine of them then died on the beach. A nearby Danish vessel of similar size lost in the same hurricane saved all 446 men aboard. The court martial acquitted Sceptre's survivors. One suggested explanation for the different outcomes is the luck of where a ship struck: a few hundred yards could separate destructive rocks from a landing that left time to escape. An intact ship remained the crew's best means of survival for as long as it stayed afloat.