Early in April the Providence was ordered to make a short cruise in Massachusetts Bay and along the coast of Maine in company with the frigate Boston. Later she was sent south of Cape Cod. May 7, at nine o clock in the morning, while cruising off Sandy Hook, the Providence, now commanded by Captain Hacker, was seen from the British brig Diligent, whose captain, testifying at his court martial, says that about noon, " as soon as I had taken measures for fighting him on the Larboard side, the side his Boom was of, he Gibed & luffed across." The Diligent luffed and received two broadsides and two volleys of musketry before returning the fire of the Providence. " Not an officer except myself unhurt, being deserted by the remains of my Crew except seven, five of them wounded, . . . Masts, Rigging & Hull cut all to pieces," was forced to surrender to the Providence. The Diligent carried twelve three-pounders and fifty-four men; the Providence, according to this English captain, six six-pounders, six fours, two twos, and eighty-three men. The Americans lost four killed and ten wounded; the British, eleven killed and nineteen wounded.

The Diligent was taken into the Continental naval service