HMS Sprightly (1778)

HMS Sprightly was a 10-gun cutter of the Royal Navy, built to a design by John Williams, and the name ship of her two-vessel class of cutters. She was launched in 1778. The French captured and scuttled her in the Mediterranean, off the Andulasian coast in 1801.

Career
Sprightly shared with the frigate HMS Amphitrite (1778), sloop HMS Fairy (1778), and the cutters HMS Griffin (1778), HMS Flying Fish (1778), and HMS Wells (1764), in the capture on 24 May 1779 of the French privateers Dunkerque and Prince de Robcq, which had "eight ransomers" aboard.

In October 1794 Lieutenant Robert Jump assumed command of Sprightly. In January 1799 he sailed her for Jamaica. Later that year Sprightly and the brigHMS Spitfire (1782) captured the brig Gute Hoffnung.

Fate
Sprightly was on her way to Gibraltar with dispatches when she had the misfortune to encounter a French squadron under Admiral Ganteaume about 40 miles south-west of Cape de Gata. During one of his expeditions, Ganteaume had called his squadron to a halt there. After a two-hour chase, Sprightly struck to the 74-gun Dix-août on 10 February 1801. The French scuttled their prey.