Commodore Rodgers was picked up with a broken leg.

Meanwhile the _Belvidera_ cast overboard her boats and anchors, emptied the fresh water barrels to better her sailing trim, and, crowding on every stitch of canvas, drew away and was lost to view.
Rodgers then forgot his orders to return to New York and went off in search of the great convoy of British merchant vessels homeward bound from Jamaica, which was called the plate fleet.

He sailed as far as the English Channel before quitting the chase and then cruised back to Boston.
Meanwhile Captain Isaac Hull of the _Constitution_ had taken on a crew and stores at Annapolis and was bound up the coast to New York.

Hull's luck appeared to be no better than Rodgers's.

Off Barnegat he sailed almost into a strong British squadron, which had been sent from Halifax.
The escape from this grave predicament was an exploit of seamanship which is among the treasured memories of the service.