the french took her into service as "alerte". some four months later, on 23 august, , captain john borlase warren, and , captain sir edward pellew, chased two french corvettes, "alerte" and "espion" into audierne bay. the two corvettes anchored off the gamelle rocks, but when they saw that the british intended to capture them, their captains got under weigh and ran their vessels aground below the guns of three shore batteries. the corvettes continued to exchange fire with the two british frigates until early evening, when the corvettes' masts fell. at that point many of the french crewmen abandoned their vessels and went ashore. warren sent in the boats from both "flora" and "arethusa", all under pellew's command, with orders to set fire or otherwise destroy the two corvettes. pellew went in and took possession of both, but determined that he could not extract the wounded. pellew therefore left the vessels, which he determined were bilged and scuttled, with rocks having pierced their bottoms, and left with 52 prisoners. pellew estimated that "alerte" had suffered 20 to 30 men killed and wounded, and that "espion" had lost more.