In early 1807, a handful of British sailors—some of American birth—deserted their ships, which were then blockading French ships in Chesapeake Bay, and joined the crew of . In an attempt to recover the British deserters, Captain Salusbury Pryce Humphreys, commanding "Leopard", hailed "Chesapeake" and requested permission to search her. Commodore James Barron of "Chesapeake" refused and "Leopard" opened fire. Caught unprepared, Barron surrendered and Humphreys sent boarders to search for the deserters. The boarding party seized four deserters from the Royal Navy–three Americans and one British-born sailor–and took them to Halifax, where the British sailor, Jenkin Ratford, was hanged for desertion. The Americans were initially sentenced to 500 lashes, but had their sentence commuted; Britain also offered to return them to America.