Launched in 1757, she was principally deployed in the North Sea to protect British fishing fleets and merchant trade.

She was removed from Navy service at the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War, and sold into private hands at Deptford Dockyard on 1 May 1783.

Alderney was the first of three vessels built to a 1755 design by Surveyor of the Navy William Bately, which collectively became known as Alderney-class sloops.

These three vessels were Bately's first experience with ship design, for which he substantially borrowed from the shape and dimensions of George II's yacht HMY Royal Caroline, built in 1750 by Master Shipwright John Hollond.

[3] Bately then added to Hollond's hull design by lengthening the "fore-rake" – the area of the bow that extended beyond the keel – in order to improve the sloop's stability in heavy swell.

[4] Admiralty Orders of 14 November 1755 indicated that the Alderney-class vessels were to be built at private dockyards, and on 17 December 1755 the contract for Alderney was issued to commercial shipwright John Snooks of Saltash.

Bately's initial design was for a two-masted snow-rigged sloop, but this was modified in mid-1756 into a traditional three-masted ship rig to increase speed, though at the expense of manoeuvrability.

[7] Commerce was a new vessel of 300 tons (bm), with a crew of 14 men, carrying a cargo of rice and indigo.

[14] Lloyd's Register for 1791 showed Alderney's master as S. Halcrow, her owner as Priestly, and her trade changing from London-Davis Straits to London-South Seas Fishery.

[16] With the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars early that year, Halcrow acquired a letter of marque on 3 August 1793.