She was funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from the two brothers of King Louis XVI.

[2] The ship was laid down at Brest in July 1782, and launched on 17 September 1784, based on a design by Antoine Groignard, and built by Jacques-Augustin Lamothe.

Captain William Cayley commissioned her in the Royal Navy as HMS Juste in August 1795.

In October Captain the Honourable Thomas Pakenham replaced Cayley and commissioned Juste for service in the Channel.

In 1801 she was commanded by Captains Herbert Sawyer, Richard Dacres — under whom she took part in Rear-Admiral Robert Calder's pursuit of Honoré Ganteaume's fleet to the West Indies — and Sir Edmund Nagle.