HMS Crescent, under the command of Captain James Saumarez, capturing the French frigate Réunion off Cherbourg, 20 October 1793

Admiral Lord de Saumarez (1757-1836) had fought in several actions, serving with distinction under Lord Hood and Sir Hyde Parker. With the outbreak of war with the French in the beginning of 1793, de Saumarez was appointed to the Crescent, a 36-gun frigate. After refitting her at Portsmouth, he was sailing from the harbour on 19 October with despatches for the Channel Islands, when news reached him of a frigate based at Cherbourg which came out of the harbour at night and attacked merchant shipping. De Saumarez sailed for Cherbourg and on the morning of the 20th came across the frigate, the 36-gun Reunion. Her crew of 320 men, who were neither gunmen or seamen, put up a good fight, but she was no match for the Crescent, and after over 120 of her crew had been killed or wounded in the space of two hours, she surrendered, and was towed to Spithead. De Saumarez was knighted for his success.

Throughout 1794 Crescent cruised in the channel and was later attached to the Channel fleet under Lord Howe.