One might be surprised that the ballast in the hold of a French frigate should consist of a load of American-made iron. And yet, this was probably quite symptomatic of the world of commerce raiding, where fitting out a ship meant using every means available. The Aimable Grenot's ballast no doubt came from an English merchant ship, returning from Virginia, which had been captured on the high seas by a commerce raider belonging to Léonor Couraye du Parc, the owner of the Aimable Grenot. We know that the construction of this frigate used a great deal of material recovered from the wreck of the Grand Grenot, another commerce raider from the same shipbuilder that had been built in Granville in 1745 and lost the following year just outside of Granville harbour.