Capture of USS Retaliation

20 November 1798, Off Guadeloupe

French success; Retaliation captured

Cruising off Guadeloupe with two other American ships, Lieutenant William Bainbridge's schooner Retaliation mistook the French frigates Insurgente and Volontaire for British and closed with them. Trapped and hopelessly outgunned, she surrendered; Bainbridge then talked the French into thinking his consorts were too strong to chase. Retaliation was the only American warship lost in the war, and was retaken the next year.

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