She had been the follow on replacement of an earlier vessel commissioned by the EIC from the Blackwall yard, Mr. Perry; which had been requisitioned on the stocks by the Admiralty in 1796,[5] and launched on 23 July 1796 as HMS Agincourt.

A peace treaty with Spain forestalled the attack and the government released her after she had spent some 59 days waiting (for which it paid £1598 in demurrage).

Earl Talbot reached Penang on 5 September, and Malacca on 15 October, and arrived at Whampoa anchorage on 19 December.

[2] Homeward bound, Earl Talbot crossed the Second Bar on 1 March 1798, reached St Helena on 5 August, and arrived in the Downs on 18 October.

[10] Later that month Earl Talbot struck on the Perates, in the South China Sea some 300 miles to the southeast of Hong Kong, during a gale.