HMS Erebus was originally built as a Royal Navy fireship, but served as a sloop and was re-rated as such in March 1808.

While serving off America, Erebus participated in the sack of Alexandria, Virginia, and launched the rockets that bombarded Fort McHenry in Baltimore on 13 September 1814.

However, when the British discovered that the Russians had stretched a defensive chain across the entrance to the harbour, precluding an attack by fireships, Saumarez abandoned the plan and the two vessels returned to normal duties.

[3] Between 28 October and 9 November, Erebus captured the Danish sloops Debitor, Ellen Maria and Rengende Jacob.

[2] On 4 August 1809, Captain Thomas Byam Martin of Implacable, while off Hogland, assigned Erebus to patrol between Aspo and Sommars rock.

[9] Erebus was employed on convoy duties and on 21 June 1810 she and Loire escorted 100 vessels through the Great Belt into the Baltic.

[17] Erebus was at Hull on 2 October, having just detained the Hopper, Somanberg, and Maria Sofie Guhlstorff, from Saint Petersburg.

[19] On 15 June Erebus, again under the command of William Autridge, captured the Danish sloop Henrietta, Anders Jergensen, master.

[21] On 4 October Podargus captured the Danish sloop Speculation and shared the prize money with Persian, Erebus, Woodlark and Plover by agreement.

However, in April, while under Commander David Ewen Bartholomew, she was at Woolwich, fitting as a Congreve rocket ship and for the North American station.

[2][25] She was equipped with a battery of 32-pound Congreve rockets installed below the main deck, which fired through portholes or scuttles pierced in the ship's side.

[26] On 23 May Erebus attempted to leave Portsmouth for the North American station but contrary winds forced her to put back.

However, suspecting trickery, Captain Gordon ordered the vessels to continue to fire, only ceasing when the powder magazine exploded at eight o'clock.

While there the British looted stores and warehouses of 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.

[27] The Americans had placed two field guns in a battery situated high on a bluff at White House Plantation (modern day Fort Belvoir), and had fired on Fairy as she sailed to reach Gordon.

That same day, Commodore John Rodgers, with four U.S. gunboats and some fireships, made an unsuccessful attempt to destroy Devastation.

The three vessels shifted their ballast to the port side to enable their combined 63 starboard guns to elevate sufficiently to engage the batteries.

All eight British warships and their prizes, 22 merchant vessels, brigs, ships and schooners, moved back to the main fleet.

During the run down the river the British had suffered only seven dead and 35 wounded, including Charles Dickson, Fairy's second lieutenant.

Erebus, Meteor, Ætna, Terror, Volcano, and Devastation moved up the Patapsco River on 12 September 1814 in preparation for an attack on Baltimore.

[28] It was fire from Erebus that provided the "rockets' red glare" that Francis Scott Key described in The Star-Spangled Banner.

The British soon silenced the fire, but Phillott decided to retreat as the river ahead was narrow (only 30 to 40 yards wide), with commanding heights and houses to their rear.

168 in Wassaw Sound, off Georgia, even though Bartholomew knew the war was over and the gunboat's master, Mr. John H. Hurlburd, had announced that he was carrying letters for Cockburn.

Bartholomew received promotion to post-captain on 13 June, but remained with Erebus until after she had assisted in the repatriation via Ostend of the British wounded from Waterloo.