She was commissioned in October under Captain Peter Halkett – who had commanded the previous Apollo when she was lost – and was posted to the West Indies, cruising there and escorting convoys to Britain.

[3] At daybreak on 15 January, Apollo sighted a vessel that proceeded to attempt to evade closer scrutiny.

Meleager had wrecked on the Triangles Shoals in the Bay of Campeche on 9 June but the crew had been able to take to the boats in time and sail to Vera Cruz.

However, she was rushed into commission again in October of that year, for service on the Irish station under Captain John William Taylor Dixon.

[13] Then on 29 June, Apollo captured the French navy brig Dart, which sailing from Martinique to Lorient.

[15][c] In July 1803 Lloyd's List reported that the frigate HMS Apollo had captured Demerara Packet, but that the French privateer Malouin had re-captured her.

[17] On 26 March 1804, Apollo sailed from Cork with a convoy of sixty-seven merchantmen, accompanied by HMS Carysfort, immediately encountering a strong gale.

[18] In the morning Apollo discovered that she had run aground about nine miles south of Cape Mondego on the coast of Portugal.

Twenty-five or six of the vessels in the convoy, traveling closely behind due to the low visibility and bad weather, were also wrecked.

[20] Later it was discovered that Apollo had taken on board an iron tank, but that no one had adjusted her compass for the influence of this large magnetic mass.

Consequently, a small error in direction accumulated over the course of the five days; at the time Apollo struck Dixon thought she was forty or so miles out to sea.

[22] Because the convoy had endured bad weather since leaving Cork, no one had taken sightings that would have enabled them to correct their estimates of their position.