In May 1785 she and her sister ship Astrolabe (previously the Autruche) were renamed, rerated as frigates, and fitted for round-the-world scientific exploration.

It departed Brest on 1 August 1785 under Lapérouse, accompanied by the Astrolabe under Paul Antoine Fleuriot de Langle.

[citation needed] The expedition vanished mysteriously in 1788 after leaving Botany Bay on 10 March 1788.

[1] The fate of Lapérouse and his two ships at Vanikoro is the subject of a chapter in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas by Jules Verne.

[citation needed] Objects recovered from the wreck are held in the collection of the Maritime Museum of New Caledonia.