The vessel was returning to France after almost achieving a full circumnavigation of the globe (which would have been completed at Rio de Janeiro, one of the early ports of call).
The Mercury was first chartered and then, when at sea, purchased by the Uranie’s captain, Louis de Freycinet, who renamed her La Physicienne and sailed her back to France via Montevideo and Rio.
A remarkable feature of the voyage, the first scientific expedition sent out from France after the Napoleonic wars, was the highly illegal presence of the captain's wife Rose de Freycinet, who had been smuggled on board in Toulon dressed a man.
He found that the wreck had suffered severely[4] at the hands of the crews of the various whalers that had visited Berkeley Sound since the departure of the Mercury, and that what remained was half covered by sand.
It was considered a good site for a direct assault, however it was heavily guarded by Argentine positions, unlike San Carlos Water[5] It was also within range of the Exocet launches at Stanley and nearby it on Hooker Point.