HMS Trincomalee was a sloop of Dutch or French origin that the British Royal Navy took into service in 1799.

She brought information from Mr. Manesty, the British East India Company's (EIC) Resident at Bassorah.

[3] Pearl had been carrying three lakh rupees (750,000 francs), 40 horses, 5000 "saumons de cuivre", and other cargo.

[a] They were cruising in the Bab-el-Mandeb when just before midnight on 12 October they encountered two vessels, the French privateer Iphigénie, Captain Jean-François Malroux du Bac,[7] and her prize, Pearl.

There were about 30-40 survivors from Iphigénie; Malroux du Bac drowned, apparently while trying to retrieve documents aboard his ship.