Captain James Hawker was an English officer in the Royal Navy. After service on the Shrewsbury and Sheerness, he was appointed first lieutenant of the Colchester at the end of 1755, and was posted in 1768. With the Iris he fought a drawn battle with La Touche Treville in the more powerful frigate Hermione off New York in 1780. He commanded the Hero in Porto Praya under Commodore George Johnstone in 1781, after which he had no further service.

Hermione was a 32-gun Concorde-class frigate of the French Navy. Designed for speed, she was one of the first ships of the French Navy to receive a copper sheathing. At the beginning of the Anglo-French War of 1778, she patrolled in the Bay of Biscay, escorting convoys and chasing privateers. She became famous when she ferried General La Fayette to the United States in 1780 in support of the rebels in the American Revolutionary War. She took an incidental role in the Battle of Cape Henry on 16 March 1781, and a major one in the action of 21 July 1781.