On 21 February 1760 the French privateer, surgeon and smuggler Francois Thurot anchored his squadron of three small ships off the County Antrim coast at Kilroot, just north of the town of Carrickfergus. His journey to this point had begun in early October the previous year when he had left Dunkirk with a force of five ships and more than a thousand troops. Evading the Royal Navy blockade, he had sailed north to Gothenburg and taken on supplies. From here he had travelled to Bergen, before heading to the Faroe Islands. Four days' sailing then placed the small fleet off the northern coast of Ireland. Adverse weather prevented an intended landing at Malin and a proposed attack on the city of Derry. Running low on supplies, the French were forced to sail for Scotland, mooring off the island of Islay on 16 February 1760. It was from here that the now depleted force headed once again for Ireland by way of the North Channel, coming to rest off Kilroot.

Originally the mission of Thurot, and the troops his ships carried, had been to attack some point in Ireland with the intention of creating a diversion from a largescale invasion of England. However, the defeat of the proposed invasion force at Quiberon Bay in November 1759, and the loss of two of Thurot's ships and a quarter of his troops relatively early in the voyage, effectively transformed an organised military expedition into a privateering adventure.