Setting sail from Cap-Français, Saint-Domingue in 1782, the expedition was part of a series of globe-spanning naval conflicts between France and Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War.

Operating under secret orders from Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix, the French Secretary of State of the Navy, Lapérouse and his squadron set sail from Cap-Français in May 1782, and arrived in the Hudson Bay in early August.

Some of captured British prisoners were put on a company sloop and allowed to sail back to England, while others were pressed into service aboard the French squadron.

Those serving on Lapérouse's squadron, which had sailed with minimal winter provisioning to maintain secrecy, suffered numerous hardships including scurvy and other diseases.

The finances of the Hudson's Bay Company suffered due to the raid, which also indirectly contributed to the deaths of up to half of the Chipewyan fur traders who conducted business with the HBC.

[3] Lapérouse's duties during the 1781 campaign season did not provide him with any chances to exercise his secret orders, but the aftermath of the disastrous French defeat in the April 1782 Battle of the Saintes did present an opportunity.

Sea Horse's captain, William Cristopher, suspecting from its behavior that the pursuing frigate lacked good charts for the bay, escaped by a ruse.

[12] On August 8 Lapérouse arrived at Prince of Wales Fort, an impressive but crumbling stone fortress that was occupied by 39 British fur traders.

[17] Lapérouse then collected most of the HBC's small boats and on 11 August sailed for York Factory, a trading outpost on a peninsula between the Hayes and Nelson River.

[20] Lapérouse sailed into the mouth of the Nelson River and moved the troops to the smaller HBC ships on August 21 to prepare an amphibious landing, with the plan of approaching the fort from the rear, a distance of about 16 miles (26 km).

[20][21] He then proceeded with his engineer to take soundings in the Nelson River and discovered that due to its shallowness, even the smaller boats would have difficulty approaching firm land.

[22][23][21] Although Lapérouse sent a frigate after the King George when she sailed off during the night after the fleet's arrival, her captain, Jonathan Fowler, successfully eluded the pursuit due to his superior knowledge of the shallow waters of the bay.

[10][19] Rostaing took the British inhabitants of the trading post prisoner, destroyed what goods he could not plunder, and burned York Factory to the ground.

[34] Lapérouse was rewarded by Louis XVI with a rise in pay of 800 livres; the exploit also drew popular acclaim in Europe and North America.

[36] The fleet conducting the voyage, in which Fleuriot de Langle served as second in command, was last seen in the vicinity of Australia in spring 1788; although remnants of the expedition have been found, his fate remains unknown.