[1] In meantime, HMS Ardent was recommissioned under the command of Captain Phillip Boteler, and sailed from Plymouth on 14 August to join Sir Charles Hardy watching the much superior Franco-Spanish forces in the English Channel.

[1] According to the ship's logs, as many as 4⁄5 of the crew were landmen, and neither Boteler nor the captain of HMS Marlborough, in whose company Ardent was sailing, was aware that a French fleet had put to sea.

In response, Ardent offered sporadic and inaccurate return fire and after three further French frigates and a Spanish ship of the line, Princesa joined the action, she struck her colours.

[1] At his subsequent court martial Captain Boteler blamed his failure to return fire on an inadequate supply of gunpowder for Ardent's cannon, a statement that as denied by the ship's gunner.

The court martial rejected Boteler's appeals, found instead that the inexperience of the crew was the principal cause of the Ardent's capture and expelled him from the Navy for his failure to adequately defend his ship.