Rated as a sloop, she had a design based on the Danish Praam (English Pram), allowing the combination of heavy armament with a draught of only 11 feet.

Her design may well have been influenced by the flush-decked, shallow draught vessels of Napoleon's invasion fleet, although Dauntless and her sisters were significantly larger.

Captain Hugh Pigot commissioned Dauntless in March 1805, serving with the anti-invasion flotillas stationed in The Downs.

Running hard aground on a sandbank within easy range of French artillery, she suffered an hour's bombardment before surrendering.

[5] At the obligatory court martial her captain, Christopher Strachey, was honourably acquitted of all blame for the surrender of his ship.