In 1803, she was part of the squadron under Samuel Hood that captured the French held islands of St Lucia and Tobago, and the Dutch colonies of Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice.

[1] Chichester was ordered on 13 May 1782 and her keel of 115 feet 2+1⁄2 inches (35 m) was laid down in August at Itchenor, West Sussex, under the instruction of shipwrights Crookenden, Taylor and Smith.

[4] Chichester returned home in August 1796 where, in November, she was recommissioned by Commander Andrew Hollis and another £4,069 was spent on refitting at Woolwich.

This was completed in January 1797 and in February she sailed to the Cape of Good Hope, returning home in November 1798, under Commander John Gardner who had been appointed in March.

Steven died in October and was replaced in November by William Campton who took the ship to Halifax, Nova Scotia, before sailing her home.

[5] War broke out again in May 1803 following the short-lived Peace of Amiens and by June, Chichester, under the command of Lieutenant Richard Thomas, had joined Samuel Hood's squadron in the Leeward Islands.

[6][7] Chichester left Barbados on 20 June in the company of Hood's 74-gun flagship HMS Centaur, the 74-gun Courageux, the frigate Argo and the sloops Hornet and Cyane.

[6] On 10 August 1803, Chichester captured the Dutch ship Burton, carrying sugar and cotton,[10] and in September, she assisted in the invasions of the colonies of Demarara, Essequibo and Berbice.

[12] Under Commander Joseph Spear in April 1804, Chichester sailed to the West Indies en flute; returning to England later in the year.

She was recommissioned under Lieutenant Edward Stopford in September 1806, for service in the Leeward Islands, paying off in August 1807 and laid up in ordinary.