unknown sails were seen on the horizon. These were the French frigate Prudente and its prize, an American ship Canton. The two ships split up and Daedalus followed the larger Prudente. Just after 12:00 Prudente, unable to evade her pursuer, turned to fire a broadside at the Daedalus. At around 25 minutes past 12:00 Daedalus opened fire, with the ships now side by side they exchanged cannon fire until the badly battered French ship surrendered after almost an hour. The Daedalus lost two men, and 12 were wounded in the engagement; Prudente suffered 27 killed and 22 wounded before returning to the Cape of Good Hope, where Prudentes damage was deemed too expensive to repair and she was scrapped. On 9 July, Daedalus sailed for the East Indies Station, joining the fleet of Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier. On 14 August Daedalus and , which was on operations in the Red Sea, received information from trading vessels that Frenchmen were stationed at the town of Kosseir. Sailing to investigate, they found that the French colours were flying over the fort. The two frigates then opened fire on the fort and town, continuing the occasional cannon fire through the night and over the next few days. Boats were sent in on two separate attempts to land men and cannons to take the town, but the French defence forced their retreat, with one man dead and a cannon lost in the surf. Daedalus and Fox retreated on the afternoon of 16 August. Between 23 August 1800 and 31 March 1801, Daedalus was part of Rainier's fleet that captured five armed Dutch vessels and destroyed another 22. One of these captured vessels Ball ordered manned and armed, which he named . With the death of Captain John Turnor in January 1801, Ball took command of the 64-gun third rate ship of the line . With the Peace of Amiens, 25 March 1802, Ball returned to Britain. With the death of Captain Adrian Renou in January 1805, Ball was appointed flag captain to Rear-Admiral Bartholomew Rowley in the 64-gun third rate ship of the line as a guardship at the Nore. On 6 April 1806, Zealand in company with , and , captured four Prussian vessels. With Rowley appointed in April 1807 as Commander-in-Chief, the Downs, Ball was moved to the navy's list of reserve officers. Ball was awarded a silver medal from the Society for