From June 1803 lieutenant de vaisseau Jean-Philippe-Paul Jourdain remained at Lorient to supervise the construction of Néarque.

[8] On 28 March a French squadron composed of the two 40-gun frigates Revanche, Commodore Amand Leduc, and Guerrière, Captain Paul-Mathieu Hubert, 36-gun frigate Sirène, Captain Alexandre Lambert, and Néarque, sailed from Lorient, on a cruise off the coast of Iceland, Greenland, and Spitzbergen, for the purpose of destroying British and Russian whaling ships.

[9] It quickly became evident that Néarque was a far worse sailer than the frigates and that she could not follow; Leduc detached her so that she would carry out her orders independently.

Niobe, Captain John Wentworth Loring, cruising between the Glénans and the isle of Groix, discovered the French squadron.

[11] James reports that although Nearque made signals, the three French frigates continued on their mission, leaving her to her fate.