Stephen Decatur Sr., was able to capture the French privateer, Croyable, off Great Egg Harbor Bay, New Jersey, on 7 July 1798.

Before her capture, Croyable had been preying upon shipping off the Delaware Capes and had taken a British brigantine and a Philadelphia merchantman, Liberty.

On 20 November the squadron recaptured merchantman "Fair American", taken 5 days earlier by a French privateer, but before being able to make their escape with the merchantman a pair of French frigates, Insurgente and Volontaire, overtook Retaliation while her consorts were away on a chase and forced Bainbridge to surrender the hopelessly out-gunned schooner.

However, even as a prisoner, Bainbridge managed to save both the Montezuma and Norfolk by convincing the senior French commander that those American warships were too powerful for his frigates and induced him to abandon their chase.

[6] Renamed Magicienne by the French, the schooner again came into American hands on 28 June 1799, when a broadside from USS Merrimack forced her to haul down her colors.