The first brig-sloop to be built for the Navy, she was ordered from a commercial builder during the early years of the American War of Independence, and went on to support operations in the English Channel and the Caribbean.

The lines and hull form were those normally found in cutters rather than in the conventional ship-rigged sloops with three masts then prevalent in British naval service.

[2] After the Admiral Rodney's victory at the battle of Cape St. Vincent, Childers, under the command of Captain M'Bride, brought back the dispatches to Britain.

[2] Diamond, Syren, Sybille, Childers, and the gun-brigs Fearless and Attack shared in the proceeds of the capture on 6 July of the Latitia.

[10] On 8 September 1795 Childers rejoined Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith in Diamond off the Rock Douvre, about eight leagues S by SW from Saint Martin's Point, Guernsey.

[11] On his way, Dacres captured the French Coast guard cutter Vigilant (or Vigilante), of six guns, in the Bay of Saint Brieux.

[16] Nineteen days later, Aquilon, Diamond, Minerva, Syren, Magicienne, and Camilla, were together when Acquilon captured Mary.

Bon Esperence, of two swivel guns and 23 men, was three days out of Cherbourg and had captured the sloop Mary Ann, of Queenborough, sailing from Plymouth to London and Woolwich with naval stores and ordnance.

[21] Etna was armed with eighteen 12-pounder guns and had a crew of 137 men under the command of Citizen Joseph La Coudrais.

In February 1797 the government made an advance prize money payment of £8000 to the officers and crews of Melampus and Childers.

[2] On 11 May Childers, in company with Phoebe, Cleopatra, Indefatigable and the hired armed lugger Duke of York, captured the Nouvelle Eugénie.

[25][d] Childers brought into Portsmouth on 28 October the French privateer schooner Furet, pierced for 14 guns but carrying only four 4-pounders, and having a crew of 50 men.

[27] Then on 11 January 1798, Childers was in company with Indefatigable and Cambrian when they captured the French privateer schooner Vengeur, of 12 guns and 72 men.

[30] The subsequent court martial of Lieutenant Raffi, who had been wounded at the start of the attack on his vessel, acquitted him for the loss.

Lord St Vincent gathered his forces with a view to pursuing the French, who had traversed the Straits of Gibraltar on the 5th.

[36] Five days later, Childers and Eurydice were in sight when the gun-vessel Assault recaptured the brig Adventure, of London, while .

[47] Victory, Renown, Seahorse and Childers shared in the proceeds of the capture on 14 January 1804 of the St. Gieuseppe e L'Allanza.

In an enclosure to a letter dated 7 October 1805, Admiral Lord Nelson wrote, "Jalouse, Childers, and Merlin being unfit for the service of this Country, are ordered home with the first Convoy to be repaired".

[50] Still, on 24 December, while serving in the squadron under Vice-Admiral Lord Collingwood, she detained the Ragusan ship Terpsichore, of 280 tons (bm), which was carrying a cargo of sugar, coffee, and the like from Isle de France (Mauritius), to Leghorn.

[53] In January Childers lay in Leith roads, waiting to escort vessels trading with Gothenburg.

He set out in pursuit and chased the vessel into the small port of Midbe (possibly Midtre Kalvekilen).

As the cutting out party returned with the galiot, Dillon observed a large brig sailing out from Hitteroe (probably Flekkefjord), towards Childers, with the apparent intent of recapturing the prize.

At about 11pm Childers was able to fire a broadside at close range, after which the Dane broke off the engagement and headed back towards Norway.

[55] Dillon received promotion to post captain, with date 21 March 1808, and the Lloyd's Patriotic Fund presented him a sword valued at one hundred guineas in acknowledgement of his gallant conduct.

[57][g] In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Childers 14 March 1808" to the four surviving claimants from the action.

Commander Joseph Packwood replaced the wounded Dillon on Childers, which remained based on the Leith station.

She gave chase and after about an hour and a half recaptured the sloop Lord Nelson, in ballast, which a privateer, the second sail that had been sighted, had captured a little earlier that morning.

She had left her home port of Stavanger on the 15th and had been off the Scottish coast for two days but Lord Nelson was her only capture.

[69] Between December 1810 and January 1811, the officers and crew of Childers presented the master, George Wilson, an inscribed sword.

Wilson had jumped into the sea at the risk of his own life to rescue a seaman who had fallen from the fore-yard-arm and was sinking.