On October 10, Admiral Samuel Graves ordered HMS Nautilus (16 guns, 125 men), under the command of Captain John Collins, to hunt down Hannah.

[16] Washington sent Broughton to lead an expedition off Nova Scotia to interrupt two British ships full of armaments bound for Quebec.

Broughton commanded USS Hancock (not the Lynch[17]), joined by Captain John Selman in Frankin (4 guns).

Two days later, Broughton wrote to Washington, that he captured the sloop Phoebe commanded by Captain James Hawkins.

"[20] Five days later, on 5 November, Broughton took the sloop Warren owned by Thomas Cochrane of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Warren was commanded by Captain John Denny, who Broughton described as not being in a "a very favorable light respecting their attachment to American Liberties.

They took three prominent people: the Acting Governor Phillips Callbeck, the Surveyor General Mr. Thomas Write and Senior naval commander on the Island Captain David Higgins.

[23] They ransacked Callbeck's home, emptied his stores and took the province silver Seal weight 59 ounces and Governor Patterson's Commission.

Callbeck's wife was the daughter of Nathaniel Coffin Jr., who a few months earlier had ordered the felling of the Liberty Tree on the Boston Common.