After initially serving in the North Sea and in the defence of the Channel Islands, in 1779 Actaeon joined the Jamaica Station, participating in the capture of Goree on 8 May as she travelled there.

Converted into a troop ship in 1787, Actaeon conveyed soldiers to various British colonies, including to Jamaica in 1790 during the Spanish Armament.

Roebuck was designed as such to provide the extra firepower a ship of two decks could bring to warfare but with a much lower draught and smaller profile.

From 1751 to 1776 only two ships of this type were built for the Royal Navy because it was felt that they were anachronistic, with the lower (and more heavily armed) deck of guns being so low as to be unusable in anything but the calmest of waters.

[6] Boteler was then in August given command of a squadron for the defence of the Channel Islands, comprising Actaeon, a fourth-rate, three frigates, two sloops, and two cutters.

[6] During this transition Actaeon formed part of a force commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes that sailed to Goree on 8 May and found that the French garrison had deserted the island, leaving it for the British to peacefully occupy.

[11][12] Continuing in the West Indies, under the orders of Rear-Admiral Hyde Parker, on 23 March 1780 Actaeon was sent from Gros Islet, Saint Lucia, to convey soldiers back to their garrisons in the Leeward Islands.

[13] She afterwards returned to Saint Lucia, where she was left when the rest of Parker's fleet moved on in April, to defend the island alongside the 50-gun fourth-rate HMS Preston.

[21][22] Patrolling off Cape Francais on 3 June 1782, Actaeon was witness to a French convoy escorted by eight ships of the line sailing for Europe.

[23] On 31 March a Spanish attack had captured the British Black River settlement on the Mosquito Coast, and Parry was to assist Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Despard in recapturing it.

[24][25] The day after the surrender Parry's squadron captured a Spanish 16-gun polacre that had been sailing to reinforce Black River with another 100 soldiers.

[23] Hood received word in December that three separate Franco-Spanish squadrons were attempting to reach Cape Francais, and he sent ships under his command out to find and intercept them.

[6] Actaeon underwent another refit at Portsmouth in September, being fitted for "foreign service" at a cost of £1,594 and in the following month recommissioned under Lieutenant Joseph Hanwell.

With the Spanish Armament having begun and war being a possibility, upon arriving there her orders were changed and on 4 July she sailed on to Jamaica with the regiment.

On 29 September Actaeon was sent to St Helens on the Isle of Wight with the 10-gun cutter HMS Swan to search vessels accessing the port in order to find any fireships.

[31] After a period of inactivity Actaeon was brought back into service for the French Revolutionary Wars, being fitted as a receiving ship between April and July 1795, costing a further £5,185.

The biographer William O'Byrne recounts one occasion in which four men from Actaeon singlehandedly pressed a ship with 200 sailors on board, successfully taking seventeen of them and forcing a further thirty to jump overboard to escape them.