Asia, under the command of Captain Robert Maw, sailed from Portsmouth on 13 March 1781, bound for Bombay and China as part of a convoy of Indiamen accompanying a British squadron under Commodore George Johnstone.

[4] At about the same time as the British sailed, a French squadron under the command of Bailli de Suffren left France.

Both squadrons were en route to the Cape of Good Hope, the British to take it from the Dutch, the French aiming to help defend it and French possessions in the Indian Ocean, including Rodriguez Island, Ile Bourbon (Réunion), Île de France (Mauritius), and Pondicherry.

[1] The convoy left Johanna on 21 or 22 September, but ran into an adverse monsoon that drove the vessels to the coast of Arabia; the four Indiamen Asia, Latham, Locko, and Osterley were driven further, to Kissen Bay, near the Bab-el-Mandeb.

As the squadron was sailing through the Strait of Malacca, on 9 September the ships encountered the 38-gun French frigate Pourvoyeuse, which was under the command of Captain de Lannuguy-Tromelin.

[7] Locko and Asia then parted company on 30 January at "St Clement's Bank Peels Morcop".

[1] After the return to Britain of the four captains of the Indiamen that participated in the action on 10 September 1782, the EIC awarded them prizes.

Robert Maw received a silver salver made in 1787 by Joseph Heriot, of London, and inscribed "The Gift of the Hon’ble East India Company to Robert Maw Esq’r Commander of the Asia East Indiaman for gallantly defending the said ship against a French frigate of 44 guns in the Straights of Malacca September, 1782.

"[9] Captain John Davy Foulkes left Portsmouth on 10 March 1785, bound for Benkulen and China.

She left on 5 March 1786, reached St Helena on 24 June, and arrived at Blackwall, London, on 20 September.

[2] The British government held her at Portsmouth, together with a number of other Indiamen in anticipation of using them as transports for an attack on Île de France (Mauritius).

When HMS Sceptre arrived at St Helena in May she brought the news that France had invaded the Netherlands in January.

Providentially, the General Goddard, an East Indiaman under the command of Captain William Taylor Money, was resting at St Helena while on her way back to England.

The EIC ships Busbridge, Captain Samuel Maitland, and Asia arrived on the scene and helped board the Dutch vessels.

[b] Captain Foulkes left Portsmouth on 12 April 1796, bound for Madras, Bengal, Bombay, and China.

The Register of Shipping for 1802 shows her master as L. Strong, her owner as Beatson & Co., and her trade as London transport.

[3] Then on 31 February 1802 Beatson sold her to buyers in Embden, who renamed her Reine Louise de Prusse.