The 64-gun Jason was a ship of the line

Ship of the line

A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...

 of the French Navy

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

, launched in 1779.

The Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 captured Jason on 19 April 1782 at the Battle of the Mona Passage

Battle of the Mona Passage

The Battle of the Mona Passage was a naval engagement on 19 April 1782 between a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, and a small French fleet. It took place in the Mona Passage, a strait separating Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, shortly after the British victory at the Battle of the...

. The Admiralty then commissioned her as the third rate HMS Argonaut.

French Revolutionary War

On 8 January 1795, while under the command of Captain Alexander John Ball she captured the French Republican warship Esperance

HMS Esperance (1795)

Built as the British privateer Ellis, she was captured by the French, then the Spanish. After returning to French ownership, she became the French corvette Esperance. The Royal Navy captured her in 1795 and took her into service as HMS Esperance. In her brief military career, Esperance changed...

 on the North America Station. Esperance was armed with 22 guns (4 and 6-pounders), and had a crew of 130 men. She was under the command of Lieutenant de Vaisseau De St. Laurent and had been out 56 days from Rochfort

Rochefort, Charente-Maritime

Rochefort is a commune in southwestern France, a port on the Charente estuary. It is a sub-prefecture of the Charente-Maritime department.-History:...

, bound for the Chesapeake. Argonaut shared the prize money with Oiseaux.

The French ambassador to the United States registered a complaint with the President of the United States that Argonaut, by entering Lynnhaven

Lynnhaven River

The Lynnhaven River is a tidal estuary located in the independent city of Virginia Beach, Virginia, in the United States, and flows into the Chesapeake Bay west of Cape Henry at Lynnhaven Inlet, beyond which is Lynnhaven Roads. It has a small, developed watershed covering , terminating at Lynnhaven...

 bay, either before she captured Esperance or shortly thereafter, had violated a treaty between France and the United States. The French also accused the British of having brought Esperance into Lynnhaven for refitting for a cruise. The President passed the complaint to the Secretary of State, who forwarded the complaint to the Governor of Virginia. The Governor inquired into the matter of the British Consul at Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

. The British Consul replied that the capture had taken place some 10 leagues

League (unit)

A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...

 off shore. The weather had forced Argonaut and her prize to shelter within the Chesapeake for some days, but that they had left as soon as practicable. Furthermore, Argonaut had paroled her French prisoners when she came into Lynnhaven and if had entered American territorial waters solely to parole her French prisoners no one would have thought that objectionable. The authorities in Virginia took a number of depositions but ultimately nothing further came from the matter.

Because she was captured in good order and sailed well, Rear Admiral George Murray

George Murray (MP)

Vice Admiral George Murray was a Royal Navy officer and politician. He was the third son of the Jacobite general Lord George Murray.-Naval career:...

, the British commander in chief of the North American station, put a British crew aboard and sent Esperance out on patrol with Lynx

HMS Lynx (1794)

HMS Lynx was a 16-gun ship-rigged sloop of the Cormorant class in the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Gravesend. In 1795 she was the cause of an international incident when she fired on the USRC Eagle...

on 31 January.

On 3 August 1795, Argonaut captured the ship Anna.