 The Royal Navy ship HMS "Plantagenet" of seventy-four guns, commanded by Captain Robert Loyd, was sailing to the West Indies with the thirty-eight gun frigate HMS "Rota" and the eighteen gun brig-sloop HMS "Carnation" for the Louisiana Campaign.On the night of September 26, the three were in company and cruising in Fayal Roads when they spotted the Baltimore clipper , a brig of seven guns with a complement of about ninety men.She was commanded by Captain Samuel Chester Reid who was not prepared to surrender his ship.