A French convoy sails from Mahé in November 1791 on the short journey to Mangalore.

The convoy includes two merchant vessels and the frigate Résolue, a thirty-six-gun warship under Captain Callamand.

Passing northwards, the convoy soon passes Tellicherry and Cornwallis sends Strachan with Phoenix and Perseverance to stop and inspect the French ships to ensure they are not carrying military supplies.

As Smith halts the merchant ships and sends boats to inspect them, Strachan does the same to Résolue, hailing the French captain and placing an officer in a small boat to board the frigate.

The French captain, outraged at this violation of his neutrality, responds by opening fire: British sources suggest that his initial target was the small boat, although Phoenix is the ship most immediately damaged.

Strachan is unsurprised at the French reaction, and returns fire immediately, the proximity of the ships preventing any maneuvers.

Within twenty minutes the combat is decided, the French captain hauling down his colors with his ship battered and more than sixty men wounded or dead.

The French ship carries significantly weaker cannon than Phoenix, with six- and twelve-pounder guns to the nine- and eighteen-pounders aboard the British squadron.

In addition, Résolue is heavily outnumbered: no other French warships are in the area while the British have three large frigates within sight.

French losses eventually total twenty-five men killed and sixty wounded, Strachan suffering just six killed and eleven wounded in return.