[1] Diomède was part of the squadron under the overall command of Vice-Admiral Corentin-Urbain Leissègues, which headed across the Atlantic Ocean bound for the Caribbean.

[3][4] She arrived with most of the squadron at French-held Santo Domingo on Hispaniola on 20 January 1806, where Leissègues ordered the ships to be recaulked after their long and difficult transatlantic voyage.

[4][5] On the morning of 6 February 1806, a Royal Navy squadron under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth arrived off Santo Domingo to attack Leissègues's force.

[9] Impérial turned toward shore and Diomède followed her, and late in the morning both ships ran aground parallel to the beach on a reef 1 nautical mile (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) off the coast of Hispaniola between Nizao and Point Catalan, suffering severe hull damage and losing all of their masts.

[15] The British boarding party took 150 prisoners aboard Diomède including her commanding officer, Captain Jean-Baptiste Henry, and then burned her wreck.