[4] On 22 and 23 September, a Royal Navy squadron under William Hotham, captured seven members of the convoy off San Domingo.

[a] Captain John Thomas commissioned Ménagère on 22 November, and brought with him the officers and crew from his previous command, the sloop HMS Barbadoes.

[3] An additional 44 men transferred from Hotham's flagship HMS Grafton; Albemarle was duly assigned to serve off the Leeward Islands.

[3] While Albemarle was undergoing this fitting, the 22-year-old Captain Horatio Nelson commissioned her on 15 August 1781 for the North Sea and the English Channel.

Nelson was initially enthusiastic about his new command, comparing her to HMS Enterprize, which was also refitting, and declaring in a letter: Yesterday I went down to Woolwich with Maurice, and hoisted my Pendant; and I am perfectly satisfied with her, as a twenty-eight gun Frigate.

[13] Nelson's companion and former commanding officer, Captain William Locker, was more experienced and privately doubted Albemarle's capabilities.

While returning to Britain, the convoy ran into heavy weather, and was forced to seek shelter in Yarmouth Roads.

He narrowly escaped capture when on 14 August a French squadron under Louis-Philippe de Vaudreuil chased him off Boston.

[3] Nelson did however capture a number of prizes during his cruise, including the French storeship Reine de France.

[3] Notable amongst Nelson's services in the West Indies in this period was his unsuccessful attack on the French garrison at Turk's Island on 7 and 8 March 1783.

The remaining recaptured convicts revealed that two sailors had instigated the uprising and Bowen had the two restrained until he could land them at Madeira where a British warship collected them and took them back to England.

[19] The EIC had instructed the masters of Albemarle, Active, Admiral Barrington, and Queen to sail to India after disembarking their convicts.

[23] HMS Albemarle was digitally reconstructed and is featured as one of the sailable ships in the video game Ahoy.