Despite his disappointment over losing his chance to command the largest warship yet built in America, Jones remained in Portsmouth striving to finish the new ship. The home in which he boarded is now known as the John Paul Jones House and is a National Historic Landmark. His labors bore fruit on 5 November 1782 when "America" – held partially back by a series of ropes calculated to break in sequence to check the vessel's acceleration, lest she come to grief on the opposite bank of the river – slipped gracefully into the waters of the Piscataqua. After she had been rigged and fitted out, the ship – commanded by M. le Chevalier de Macarty Martinge (who had commanded "Magnifique" when she was wrecked) departed Portsmouth on 24 June 1783 and reached Brest, France, on 16 July. Armed with a main battery of 18 pounder at a time when French 74's carried 24-pdr and 36-pdr guns, "America" would have a relatively weak broadside compared to other French ships-of-the-line. Little is known of her subsequent service under the French flag other than the fact it was brief. A bit over three years later, she was carefully examined by a survey committee which found her damaged by dry rot beyond economical repair, probably caused by her wartime construction from green timber. She was accordingly scrapped and a much larger "America" with nearly twice her weight of shot was built to take her place.