She was the former Maltese ship San Giovanni, which the French captured on the stocks in 1798 and launched and commissioned as Athénien.

The Royal Navy captured her at or prior to the surrender of Valletta, on 4 September 1800, and took her into service as Athenienne.

Although the capitulation only took place in September, Athenian was among the British vessels at Malta that shared in the prize money for the capture of Courageux on 29 March 1800.

Athenienne then joined the squadron under Lord Keith off Alexandria until she sprang a leak and returned to Malta for repairs.

In 1850, the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt" to claimants from the crews of the vessels that had served in the navy's Egyptian campaign between 8 March 1801 and 2 September, including Athenian.

The objectives were two-fold: to avoid French ships reported to be in the Indian Ocean,[7] and to improve the charting of Bass Strait.

On 21 April 1806 Sir Sidney Smith took command off Palermo of a squadron that included Athenienne.

She subsequently took part in the reinforcement of the defense of Gaieta (41°13′N 13°34′E / 41.217°N 13.567°E / 41.217; 13.567), the capture of Capri, and frequent forays to the coast of Calabria.

[1] On 16 October 1806, Athenienne sailed from Gibraltar for Malta under the command of Captain Robert Raynsford, with a crew of 470.