These were the sloops Betsy and Polly, brigs M'Cleary, Reprizal, Argyle, and Postillion, the schooner Chelsea, and the snow David.

On 11 September 1779, whilst Ariel was cruising off Charleston, South Carolina, she sighted a strange sail and approached to investigate, unaware that the French fleet under Admiral d'Estaing had entered the theatre.

However, loading the ship and the need to obtain other vessels to carry the surplus cargo which Ariel could not hold delayed her departure.

Ariel — accompanied by merchantmen Luke and Duke of Leinster, which Benjamin Franklin had chartered to take care of the surplus supplies — departed L'Orient on 5 September, but contrary winds held them up in Groix Roads for over a month.

However, the next day one of the most severe storms in the history of the French coast broke and wreaked great havoc in the area, destroying many ships.

Only Jones's superb seamanship enabled her to stay afloat and then to limp back into Groix Roads under a jury rig on the morning of 12 October.

Luke—faster and less damaged than Ariel—also managed to get back to port, but sailed independently before Ariel's repairs could be completed; a British warship then captured Luke.

Jones left much of Ariel's armament in France so he followed a southern route in the hope of avoiding encountering the Royal Navy.

Jones hoped that she would shake off her pursuer during the night, but the stranger was in full sight when daylight returned the following morning, closer than she had been when last seen the previous evening.

When Pindar refused, Jones opened fire and forced his surprised enemy to surrender following a short and one-sided struggle.

However, after Triumph had struck her colors, Pindar maneuvered his ship to Ariel's weather bow while the latter was lowering a boat for a prize crew, and then quickly escaped.

He uncovered a plot by the English seamen whom he had enlisted from among British prisoners of war in France to fill out his crew (built around survivors from Bonhomme Richard), to take over Ariel; Jones put the troublemakers in irons.

The rest of her voyage was uneventful; Ariel finally reached Philadelphia with her badly needed military stores—which included 437 barrels of gunpowder, 146 chests of arms, a large quantity of shot, sheet lead, and much medicine—on 18 February 1781.

At the beginning of March, Ariel—still in port discharging her cargo—fired a salute to celebrate Maryland's ratification of the Articles of Confederation activating the new nation's first central government.