[1] During this voyage Horncastle and Princess Royal reportedly fought an action in the Straits of Malacca,[8] though it is not clear against whom.

The French Revolutionary Wars had begun two months earlier so Horncastle received a letter of marque dated 28 February 1793.

Another report, this by Captain Simpson of Carron, stated that three French warships were cruising off the coast of Canton.

He described them as a 64-gun, a 44-gun, and a 20-gun vessel; they had a large number of troops aboard and were believed responsible for Princess Royal's capture.

[5] On 25 January 1794, Duguay Trouin, under the command of Julien Thérouart, was in the Sunda Strait as part of a French naval squadron from Île de France, that also included the frigates Prudente and Cybèle, and the brig Vulcain, all four vessels under the overall command of Captain Jean-Marie Renaud.

There they engaged a squadron of EIC ships consisting of the East Indiamen William Pitt, Houghton, and Britannia, the country ship Nonsuch, the Bombay Marine (EIC) 14-gun brig Nautilus, and two recently captured French privateers, all under the overall command of Commodore Charles Mitchell.

For an hour the two squadrons continued a general exchange of fire at long-range, before Mitchell turned William Pitt, Houghton and Nonsuch towards the French at 09:30, the latter two both managing to hit Cybèle with destructive broadsides.

Firing continued for another 18 minutes as Renaud withdrew, eventually anchoring off the island of Pulau Baby.

Neither commander was keen to continue the action, Mitchell fearing that his undermanned ships would not be able to properly engage the better armed French vessels.

Casualties among the French squadron are not known, but the only loss on the British ships was on Nonsuch, which had a man killed in combat with Cybèle.

[13] In need of reinforcement and resupply, Mitchell drew his squadron back to Batavia and was there joined by the 36 gun Dutch frigate Amazone under Captain Kerwal and an armed merchant ship.

Mitchell's ships then cruised the Sunda Strait for another two weeks without discovering any enemy vessels, before concluding the operation on 8 February and returning to the Indian Ocean via Bencoolen.

His squadron reached the British trading post on 9 February, where Pigot was still undergoing repairs.

Newcome landed 200 sick and wounded prisoners, as well as the rest of Dugay Trouin's crew on Ste.

While it was in the Seychelles, the British squadron also captured the brig Olivette, which belonged to the French privateer Jean-François Hodoul, and Deux Andrés, a slaver from Mozambique under the command of Captain Hardy, with 408 slaves on board.

[4] Lloyd's List reported in 1800 that a privateer had captured Princess Royal, "late Company's ship", in November 1799 off the coast of Sumatra.