At the start of 1799 the Bay of Bengal was largely undefended. The British naval commander, Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier, had taken most of his ships westwards to the Red Sea to participate in opposition to Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt, leaving only a single frigate to protect trade shipping in the region. This ship was the 40-gun HMS "Sybille", a large, powerful ship captured from the French at the Battle of Mykonos in 1794. Weighing more than 1,000 tons bm and with a maindeck battery of 28 18-pounder long guns supplemented by six 9-pounder long guns and fourteen 32-pounder cannonades, "Sybille" was a formidable ship, but significantly weaker than the massive "Forte". Many of "Sybille"'s crew had fallen ill while the ship had been stationed at Calcutta, leaving her undermanned. To compensate, the crew had been augmented by a detachment from the frigate HMS "Fox" and soldiers from the Scotch Brigade. In command was Captain Edward Cooke, who had distinguished himself early in the war by negotiating the surrender of the French Mediterranean port city of Toulon in 1793. This action, under threat of execution by the Republican faction in the city, led to the siege of Toulon and the destruction of almost half of the French Mediterranean Fleet. In January 1798 Cooke and "Sybille" had participated in the successful Raid on Manila.