Commissioners in France – Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee – to a design by the French naval architect Jacques Boux.

In 1777, Continental Navy officer John Paul Jones sailed for the Kingdom of France, hoping to assume command of Indien; however, prior to his arrival, financial difficulties and opposition from the still-neutral Dutch Republic, under pressure from the Kingdom of Great Britain, had forced the commissioners to sell the frigate to King Louis XVI.

In 1781 South Carolina, manned by American officers and a group of European seamen and marines, sailed from Texel via Scotland and Ireland.

[5] On the way to Tenerife she captured the brig Venus, loaded with a cargo of salt fish from Newfoundland for Lisbon.

At Havana, after negotiations between Gillon and the Spanish, the South Carolina joined a force of 59 vessels sent to capture the British colony of New Providence in the Bahamas.

On the way, on 25 May a British privateer, the Virginia of New York, trailed her, firing the occasional cannon to try to draw the attention of any vessels of the Royal Navy that might be cruising in the area.

Fortunately she had some 50 Hessian marines and eight British soldiers aboard who had been captured from General John Burgoyne's army at the Battle of Saratoga and who had been recruited from prison.

[7] South Carolina was in the company of the brig Constance, schooner Seagrove and the ship Hope, which had joined her for protection.

[9] This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.