La Amistad, after sitting at the wharf behind the Custom House in New London for a year and a half, was auctioned off by the U.S. Marshall in October 1840. Captain George Howland of Newport, Rhode Island purchased the vessel and then had to get an Act of Congress passed so that he could register her. He renamed her Ion, and, in late 1841, sailed to Bermuda and St. Thomas with a typical New England cargo of onions, apples, live poultry, and cheese. After sailing her for a couple of years, he sold the boat in Guadeloupe in 1844. There appears to be no record of what became of the Ion under her French owners in the Caribbean.