On 1 June 1814, Barney's flotilla, led by his flagship, the 49 feet sloop-rigged, self-propelled floating battery USS Scorpion 1812 6 , mounting two long guns and two carronades, were coming down Chesapeake Bay when they encountered the 12-gun schooner HMS St Lawrence 1813 6 (the former Baltimore privateer Atlas), and boats from the 74-gun third rates HMS Dragon 1798 6 and HMS Albion 1802 6 near St. Jerome Creek.