In the 1760s, Fortune was in service between France and America, sailing from Rochefort, Bordeaux and Brest, bound for Louisiane, Saint-Domingue and Cayenne.

[1] On 20 August 1771, Berryer arrived at the island, under Lieutenant Kerguelen, tasked with a mission of exploration to seek new territories South of Isle de France.

[2] Fortune and Gros Ventre started by surveying a new route to the Coromandel Coast discovered in 1767 by then-Ensign Grenier, of the corvette Heure du Berger.

[4] Gros Ventre and Fortune sailed South, the crew suffering considerably from the cold, for which they were neither prepared nor equipped.

On 18, both stopped searching for the other and, Fortune returned to Isle de France under Kerguelen, while Gros Ventre went on to continue her mission of the shores of Australia.