Duckworth, at the period referred to, was the commanding officer at Cape Nicolas-Mole, the port to which, after the capture of her convoy, the Quebec proceeded.

On the 22d of August, at 10 a.m., as the squadron of British frigates under Commodore Sir Borlase Warren in the Pomone, consisting, besides that ship, of the 44-gun frigate Anson, Captain Philip Charles Durham, 38-gun frigate Artois, Captain Sir Edmund Nagle, 32-gun frigate Galatea, Captain Richard Goodwin Keats, and 18-gun Brig-sloop Sylph, Captain John Chambers White, were cruising off the mouth of the river Gironde with the wind from the north-north-west, the French 36-gun frigate Andromaque made her appearance in the south-south-west, standing in towards the entrance of the river. This frigate had been cruising, and successfully, in company with the Néréide and Decade of the same force, and the 28-gun frigate (or 24-gun corvette, as the French would call her) Baïonnaise.

The Galatea, who, with the Sylph brig, was close in-shore and considerably ahead of her consorts, crowded sail to cut off the French frigate from the Gironde, and, by making several French signals, induced the Andromaque to come to an anchor near the entrance of the Grave channel. In a few minutes, however, the Andromaque, discovering her mistake, cut her cable, and made all sail to the southward, pursued by the Galatea ; who, having stood into the channel between the lighthouse and the Chevrier bank, now hauled to windward of and rounded the latter in four fathoms' water. Having cleared this danger, the Galatea made all sail before the wind, followed by the Pomone and Anson. Meanwhile, the Artois and Sylph had been detached to examine two suspicious ships away in the south-west.

At 8 p.m. the Galatea was not more than two miles astern of the Andromaque. At 9 p.m. a violent squall, attended with heavy rain, thunder, and lightning, obliged the chasing ships to shorten sails ; whereby the French frigate was suddenly lost sight of, owing to the extreme darkness of the night. At 10 p.m. the weather moderated ; and, while the Pomone and Anson stood to the northward, on the supposition that the Andromaque had hauled her wind in that direction, the Galatea continued her course along the French coast to the southward.

At 11 p.m., the weather clearing, the Galatea regained a sight of the French frigate in the south-south-west, and made all sail in chase. At midnight the Galatea was only a mile off shore, and, at 4 a.m. on the 23d, not above two miles astern of the Andromaque. At daybreak the Artois and Sylph, who had found the two ships they had been sent to examine to be Americans from Bordeaux bound to Boston, were seen nearly hull-down in the north-west. At about 5 h. 30 m. a.m. The Andromaque hauled up for the land, and at 6 a.m. ran on shore within five leagues of Arcasson, successively cutting away her mizen, main, and fore masts.

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