On 1 January 1800, a convoy of American merchant ships and their escort, United States naval schooner , engaged a squadron of armed barges manned by French-allied Haitians known as picaroons off the coast of present-day Haiti. On 1 February, the American frigate unsuccessfully tried to capture the French frigate "La Vengeance" off the coast of Saint Kitts. In early May, Captain Silas Talbot organized a naval expedition to Puerto Plata on the island of Hispaniola in order to harass French shipping, capturing the Spanish coastal fort at Puerto Plata and a French corvette. Following the French invasion of Curaçao in July, the American sloops and began a blockade of the island in September that led to a French withdrawal. On 12 October, the frigate captured the corvette . On 25 October, the defeated the French brig "Flambeau" near the island of Dominica in the Caribbean Sea. "Enterprise" also captured eight privateers and freed eleven U.S. merchant ships from captivity, while captured the French privateers "Deux Amis" and "Diane" and liberated numerous American merchant ships.