Constellation spotted L'Insurgente northeast of Nevis at midday and captured the fleeing French frigate after an action in which her 12-pounders proved ineffective.

On 9 February 1799, under Captain Thomas Truxtun, Constellation fought and captured the French frigate L'Insurgente of 36 guns, the fastest ship in the French Navy. The battle started about 18 miles (29 km) northeast of the island of Nevis around midday, when Constellation spotted L'Insurgente, which hoisted studding sails and attempted to run. L'Insurgente's 12-pounders were not equal to the task against Constellation's hull. The French frigate had recently captured the schooner Retaliation in November 1798 and had escaped a chase by Constitution three weeks earlier.

Sources

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.