The ship drifted across the Pacific Ocean, reaching the vicinity of Santa Barbara on the coast of Alta California, then part of New Spain, in late March 1815.
According to the brig's sailing master Alexander Adams, a ship in distress was spotted on 24 March 1815, which proved to be Japanese and had lost both mast and rudder.
Details about the rescue differ in the accounts written by Adams, Pigot, and others such as the Russian Naval Officer Otto von Kotzebue, in part due to language difficulties.
Its original purpose lost, Captain Pigot used Forester for the maritime fur trade, in partial cooperation with the Russian American Company, which was hunting sea otters off the coast of California.
The Forester left Sitka in June or July 1815, intending to sail to Japan to return the Japanese sailors, but having difficulty in the Kuril Islands turned back to Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, arriving on 12 September 1815.