A letter from Major Moses Corbet, Lieutenant Governor of Jersey, reported that on 1 May 1779, a French force attempted a landing at St Ouen's Bay.

Guns on the cutters, and small craft supporting the landing, fired grapeshot at the defenders on the coast.

By fast marching, the 78th Regiment of Foot and Jersey militia had arrived in time to oppose the landing, dragging with them some field artillery through the sand of the beaches.

On 2 May, a vessel from Jersey fell in with a convoy under Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot that had left Spithead en route to North America.

[2] On 13 May Captain Sir James Wallace captured the French frigate Danae, and a brig and cutter, in Cancale Bay.