Commissioned in the same year, the ship served throughout the remainder of the American Revolutionary War on the North America Station.

Her service there included capturing the American privateer Rattlesnake on 17 June 1781 and coordinating the evacuation of Savannah, Georgia, in July 1782.

Having briefly served as a troop ship during the subsequent peace, Assurance was recommissioned in 1793 for the French Revolutionary Wars.

Part of a convoy sailing from Martinique in 1798, Assurance assisted in saving the crew of the storm-stricken store ship HMS Etrusco on 25 August.

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.

[4] Ships of the class built after 1782 received an updated armament, replacing the small upper deck 9-pounder guns with more modern 12-pounders.

[12] Again in Boston Bay on 12 October, Assurance re-captured the merchant brigantine Poole as her prize crew sailed her towards the port, having captured her off Lisbon.

[14] Also in late October, Assurance re-captured the merchant schooner Ann after an eight-hour chase; she had been captured by an American privateer while attempting to sail in to New York.

Thirty-four transport ships arrived on 20 June for the operation, and Swiney's fleet reached the Savannah River in early July.

[6] Laid up at Sheerness Dockyard, Assurance was repaired between March and October 1785 at a cost of £8,578, but was not immediately put back into service.

The mayor had the five officers committed to the local jail; as they were escorted through Rochester the mob attacked them, knocking Brenton to the ground and stealing most of his clothes.

Brenton was released from service in Assurance in order that he could stay in Britain for the trial, which subsequently condemned the mayor to pay a penalty of £750.

[6] Berkeley sailed Assurance to serve in the Mediterranean Sea in February 1794, but stayed there only briefly, moving to the West Indies Station to join Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis' fleet.

[6] Jervis was undertaking a campaign to capture enemy-held islands, and in March Assurance joined the fleet as in undertook the invasion of Martinique.

[6] Lieutenant Charles Ogle was appointed acting captain of Assurance in May, departing when he received promotion to commander later in the same month.

[34] When resistance flared up again on Guadeloupe, Assurance was part of the force that returned to support fresh landings by the army on 19 June, with the ship again running supplies ashore.

One cannonball smashed through her cabins, killing the convalescent Major Robert Irving, the army's deputy quartermaster general.

[37] Captain Charles Sawyer joined Assurance in April 1795, and it was under his command that the ship returned to Britain, being paid off at Sheerness in September the same year.

This cost £7,008 and was completed in July, prior to which on 8 June the ship was transferred to serve under the auspices of the Transport Board.

The ship had already been in bad repair with rotten timbers causing several leaks, and she was now forced to sail under a jury rig, struggling to keep up with the convoy.