Stile sailed "Cameleon" to the Mediterranean on 4 March 1799. "Cameleon" arrived at Gibraltar on 5 May, having passed through a French squadron some eight or nine leagues west of Cape Spartel. The next day "Cameleon" departed for Malta to inform Captain Alexander Ball, who was in charge of the naval blockade at the siege of Malta, that the French fleet was in the Mediterranean. She was then to go on to Alexandria to also inform Sir Sidney Smith. Smith, in a later letter to Earl Spencer, alludes to mutinous conduct aboard "Cameleon", and hopes that Stiles has rendered "His dissatisfied ship's company ashamed of "their" late conduct."