She is best known for her capture of the larger French frigate Gloire in a battle on 10 April 1795, while under the command of Captain Lord Henry Paulet.

On 15 March 1783, Astraea, Vestal, and Duc de Chartres captured the ship Julius Cæsar.

[3] In September 1786, Astraea was commissioned under Captain Peter Rainier, Jr.[3] She proceeded to Ferrol, Madeira, and the West Indies, where she remained for three years.

[8] John Talbot, first lieutenant on Astraea, took Gloire to Britain, where he received promotion to commander and took over the 14-gun sloop-of-war Helena.

[9] In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Astraea 10 April 1795" to any surviving crewmen that came forward to claim it.

The French squadron had left Brest three weeks earlier but had made only one capture, a small Spanish brig.

Astraea was in a poor state so Rear Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the West Indies station Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian had her carry the dispatches back to Britain.

[11] On 16 February 1797, Astraea was under the command of Captain Richard Dacres when she and Plover captured the French privateer Tartare.

[12] On 1 June 1797, off The Skaw, Astraea captured the Dutch privateer Stuiver, of 10 guns and with a crew of 48 men.

[13] In September 1797, in the North Sea, Astraea rescued Midshipman Benjamin Clement, who would one day rise to the rank of post captain, and the crew of his jolly boat.

At end-February 1798 Astraea and Veteran towed General Eliott in to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, after her crew had abandoned her.

[18] Astraea was some 20 miles west of the Texel on 10 April when she captured the 14-gun French privateer lugger Marsouin after a chase of three hours.

Astraea was armed en flute when she took part in the landings in March at Abu Qir Bay.

[24] Because Astraea served in the navy's Egyptian campaign between 8 March 1801 and 2 September, her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorised in 1850 for all surviving claimants.

[31] In November 1807 Captain Edmund Heywood took command of Astraea as she was fitting out at Chatham for the West Indies.

At the time of the capture, the sloop-of-war Royalist had joined the pursuit and gun-brigs Wrangler and Tickler were in sight.

[26] In 1808, Astraea escorted the mail packet ship Prince Earnest past the danger of Caribbean privateers.

Heywood, thinking that Anegada was Puerto Rico, wrecked upon the deadly horseshoe reef on 23 March.

[33] The court martial held:"... having heard the narrative thereof by Captain Edmund Heywood, together with explanations given by himself and also by Mr. Allan McLean, the master of the said ship, and having fully completed the inquiry, and maturely and deliberately weighed and considered the whole thereof, the court is of opinion that the loss was occasioned by an extraordinary weather current having set the ship nearly two degrees to the eastwards of the reckoning of all the officers on board ... and that no blame is attributable to Captain Heywood, his officers, and ship's company."

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