High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Augusta was a brig purchased by the US Navy on 30 June 1799 at Norfolk, Virginia and fitted out at Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania by Naval Constructor Joshua Humphreys. She was placed in commission for service in the Quasi-War with France sometime late in 1799 with Lieutenant Archibald McElroy in command. In December, she put to sea in company with a convoy bound for the Caribbean and arrived in the West Indies by early 1800. She began cruising in search of French vessels operating there. On 21 January 1800, the brig and her consort, Herald, encountered and captured the 6-gun privateer schooner La Mutine off Puerto Rico. Later that spring, she cruised the coast of what is now Haiti operating against the French in conjunction with the forces under Toussaint Louverture.