Jean Bart was built to a design by Pierre Duhamel; she was due to be renamed Installée in May 1795, but was captured before that could happen.

[6] Jean Bart was sailing to Brest with dispatches from the French minister in the United States.

In a deposition, Guillaume François Néel of Saint Malo testified that he had been the captain of Jean Bart at her capture, and that she had had 118 persons aboard, one of whom was an American; all the rest were French.

Néel stated that he had thrown a packet containing the dispatches overboard but that it had floated rather than sunk, and that a boat from Cerberus had retrieved it.

Seymour sailed Arab for the Channel, where she joined the squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren.