In May Hodoul received his first privateer command, "Apollon", of ten guns and six "obusier"s. He sailed on 7 March with 71 men from Port-Louis for the Malabar Coast. There he captured the ship "Eliza", of three masts and 350 tons (bm), herself a former French vessel. Six days later he rescued seven slaves aboard a British vessel whose crew had abandoned it after a storm. A few days later, on 17 May, near Masulipatnam, he captured "Aydresev", a ship of about 500 tons, sailing under the Maharatta flag. She arrived at Port-Louis on 23 June. The captain of the prize crew, Harel, reported that on 3 May Hodoul had captured a British vessel bound for Tranquebar, then a Danish colony.