Anstruther appears in lists of vessels registered in Calcutta in 1800 and 1803 as being built there, though there is no record of her launch year.

In 1801 Major-General Sir David Baird led an expedition to the Red Sea.

Baird was in command of the Indian army that was going to Egypt to help General Ralph Abercromby expel the French there.

[3] In 1803 Anstruther's master was William Richardson, and her owner Fairlie, Gilmore and Co.[4] Lord Wellesley, Governor-General of India, decided in 1803 to re-establish a British East India Company (EIC) outpost at Balambangan and instructed R. J. Farquhar, the British Resident at Amboina, to manage the expedition.

It had Anstruther outfitted at Malacca as an armed ship with twenty-four 9&12-pounder guns, and she was carrying native troops as marines.