[1] As part of Britain's measures against Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom Devastation was part of a large squadron, comprising eleven ships, ten brigs, three bomb-vessels, an armed lugger, and a cutter, which on 24 and 25 April 1805, captured eight unarmed schuyts and an unarmed transport ship at Boulogne.

The Marquis contacted Rear-Admiral Keats in his flagship Superb, and on 9 August 1808 the Spaniards seized the fort and town of Nyborg.

On 23 November Devastation, Thunder, and Aetna, with a number of English and Spanish mortar and gun-boats, attacked the French flotilla at El Puerto de Santa María, between them firing some hundred shells with considerable effect.

[1] Shortly after the outbreak of the War of 1812, on 12 August, Devastation shared in the seizure of several American vessels: Cuba, Caliban, Edward, Galen, Halcyon, and Cygnet.

There they captured twenty-two merchant vessels[10] and vast quantities of plunder, including 16,000 barrels of flour, 1,000 hogsheads of tobacco, 150 bales of cotton and some $5,000 worth of wine, sugar and other items before withdrawing.

On the morning of 31 October 1814, Devastation arrived at Parker's Point, Virginia, on the Potomac River,[12] and landed two hundred seamen and marines to procure cattle.

On 14 January 1815, after the capture of Fort Peter, British troops accompanied by the Devastation and Terror[14] ascended the river to St. Marys and occupied the town.