The challenge was accepted and widely disseminated throughout the city, so that when Captain Jean-Baptiste-François Bompart of Embuscade sailed out to meet Courtenay on the morning of 31 July, the shore was crowded with thousands of sightseers.

With Courtenay gone, Boston continued to suffer severe damage until just after 07:00, when the remaining officers ordered all surviving sails set and the British ship attempted to escape.

After a close encounter with French ships in the Delaware River, Boston eventually escaped to St John's, Newfoundland while Embuscade refitted in New York.

[1] In response, the French sent several frigate squadrons to sea, including their newest ships and best sailors and officers in an attempt to disrupt British commerce in the early stages of the war.

After the ambassador disembarked, the squadron, under the command of Captain Jean-Baptiste-François Bompart, dispersed to raid British shipping along the coast, capturing or destroying more than 60 merchant vessels before retiring to American ports for repairs.

[3] On 28 June 1793, Boston arrived off New York, Courtenay deliberately disguising his ship to resemble a French vessel by having the French-speaking members of his crew talk loudly on the quarterdeck while an American pilot boat was within earshot.

[8] At 06:10 the main topmast was knocked over and the mizzen mast badly damaged, and ten minutes later, as he was exhorting his men to greater efforts, a cannonball struck the rail where Captain Courtenay and Royal Marine Lieutenant James Butler were standing.

[6] With difficulty Edwards wore away from the threat and recognised that continued resistance would be futile, turning Boston towards the open sea away from Embuscade and setting all remaining sail to escape.

Aware that his ship would be rapidly overwhelmed by such a force, Edwards disembarked the pilot and sailed north, eventually bringing his battered vessel into St John's, Newfoundland.

[14] This second account was accepted by Courtenay's family and shortly after Edwards' death in January 1823 from the effects of the wound he received in the action with Embuscade, the naval officer and historian Edward Pelham Brenton published his work Naval History of Great Britain from the Year 1783 to 1822, in which he wrote that: "The action soon began, and continued with great bravery on both sides, until the iron hammock-rail of the quarter-deck being struck by a shot, a part of it took Captain Courteney [sic] on the back of the neck, and he fell, but no blood followed.

"[10] Subsequent histories, including William Laird Clowes' book of 1900 and Richard Woodman's of 2001 follow James,[6][11] but in his 1837 reprint Brenton defended the account and named Alexander Robert Kerr, second lieutenant of Boston during the action, as his source.

[15] In the same year a magazine article written by a niece of Captain Courtenay continued to repeat the allegations, stating that "the treacherous or – to say the least of it – the improper and unprofessional conduct of Lieutenant Edwards" had been responsible for his commander's death.