She was registered as a cutter on 13 March 1783, and Lieutenant Daniel Folliott commissioned her that month for the Western Channel.

[1] Barracouta was paid off in August 1786, but recommissioned in September by Lieutenant Robert Barlow for Rame Head and the Cornish coast.

[1] He cruised with great success against smugglers until he was promoted to the rank of Commander in 1790, and soon after appointed to the brig Childers with orders to resume his former station on the coast of Cornwall.

[2] On 19 July Lloyd's List (LL) reported that the privateer Thought, of London, had brought several vessels into Falmouth.

[Note 3] Triton was with a squadron off the Stevenet Rock when she captured Vedette, of 14 guns and 84 men, which was sailing from Brest to Lorient.

French records indicate that Vedette, lieutenant de vaisseau Kerdrain, was escorting a convoy from Lorient to Brest.

Captain John Gore's report described Vedette as a national (i.e., naval) brig and the former cutter Barracouta.

[11] Lloyd's List (LL) reported on 18 February that Videt, of 14 guns and 80 men, a prize to the frigate Triton, had arrived at Falmouth.

[13] Admiralty records indicate that Vidette served as a hired vessel between 1800 and 1801,[14] suggesting that private parties had bought her in 1800.