On 13 October 1794, the large, modern and powerful 40-gun French frigate Révolutionnaire under the command of Captain Antoine René Thévenard sailed from Le Havre for a raiding cruise against British trade routes in the Atlantic.

[1] The French Atlantic fleet, based at the fortified port of Brest in Brittany, was in a state of political turmoil during the early years of the war, suffering a mutiny in August 1793,[2] and then defeat at the battle of Glorious First of June in 1794.

[6] Pellew led his squadron out of Cawsand Bay on 19 October with the intention of cruising off the entrance to Brest and intercepting shipping entering or leaving the port.

One such ship, was the large newly commissioned 40-gun frigate Révolutionnaire under Captain Antoine René Thévenard with a hastily assembled and disaffected crew and a main battery of 18–pounder cannon, which departed from the Channel port of Le Havre on 13 October, sailing westwards towards the Atlantic.

[8] On 21 October, eight days after leaving Le Havre, and between 25–30 nautical miles (56 km) off the island of Ushant at the tip of the Breton Peninsula, Révolutionnaire was discovered at dawn by Pellew's squadron.

[9] For forty minutes the two frigates traded broadsides, Nagle's fire damaging the French ship's rigging and slowing Révolutionnaire enough that the rest of Pellew's squadron could come up.

[5] Pellew's squadron brought Révolutionnaire back to Falmouth immediately, having discovered an outbreak of small pox among the prisoners of war taken from the French frigate.

[6] Eighteen months later, Révolutionnaire fought and captured the French frigate Unité at the action of 12 April 1796, and remained in the Royal Navy throughout the following 21 years of warfare.