Active served in the navy's Egyptian campaign between 8 March 1801 and 2 September, which qualified her officers and crew for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.

Ships that sustained strikes, in some cases that caused damage or casualties, included Active, Dragon, Goliath, and Superb.

[14] In August 1804, Active was under the command of Captain Richard Mowbray, for the blockade of Toulon, in the Mediterranean.

[5] (Captain Davers had resigned his command due to ill-health caused by yellow fever, which he had caught on the Leeward Islands station.

Les Amis was armed with four 6-pounder guns, had a crew of 20 men, and was carrying a cargo of wine and merchandise from Bordeaux to her home port of Cayenne.

[15] At some point Active captured the Prussian vessels Ida Margaretta, Anna Dorothea, and Norberg.

An initial assignment was her participation in Thomas Louis's squadron in Admiral Duckworth's Dardanelles Operation.

Active took her prize to Malta, together with the prisoners, who included Commodore Don Amilcar Paolucci, commander in chief of the Italian Marine, and Knight of the Iron Crown.

She was recommissioned in June 1809 under Captain James Alexander Gordon, who sailed for the Adriatic on 4 October.

On 14 June Cerberus, in company with Active and Swallow, captured three gunboats - the Vincentina, Modanese and Elvetica (or Elvetria).

They captured one trabaccolo and ten Venetian transports that were carrying supplies from Ancona to the French at Corfu.

[24] The vessels were: In addition, the British were able to burn two warehouses holding oil, soldiers' clothing, ammunition, and naval stores, including cables, blocks, hawsers, hemp, and the like.

[24] On 14 March Active participated in the Battle of Lissa, where she lost nine men killed and 26 wounded, but together with Cerberus captured the French frigate Corona.

[25] Active, Amphion, Cerberus, and Volage encountered a French force consisting of five frigates, one corvette, one brig, two schooners, one gun boat, and one xebec, all under M. Dubourdieu, Captain de Vaisseux.

[25] The acting captain of Flora replied that she had not struck but rather that a shot had carried away her flag and that therefore the French were not going to surrender her.

In 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Lissa" to all surviving claimants.

[27] On 27 July Active's boats attacked a convoy in the port of Rogoznica on the Dalmatian coast that was carrying grain to the garrison at Ragusa.

[29] The action cost Active eight men dead and 27 wounded, with Captain Gordon hit by a cannonball that severed his knee,[30] leaving his leg hanging by a thread.

[5] This article includes data released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported UK: England & Wales Licence, by the National Maritime Museum, as part of the Warship Histories project.