In her subsequent short career in British service as HMS Espoir she captured three prizes, with the capture in 1798 of the more heavily armed Genoese pirate Liguria earning her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal.

[4] She escorted convoys between Bayonne and Brest, cruised in the Bay of Biscay and south of Ireland, and was at Rochefort.

Under his command Lazouski, based at Rochefort, cruised the Gulf of Gascony, and escorted a convoy from Rochelle to Pasajes.

[4] Around 15 July, while under the command of Lieutenant de vaisseau Goyeteche, Espoir escorted merchant vessels from Saint-Jean-de-Luz to Bayonne.

Thalia, under Captain Lord Henry Paulet, captured Espoir in the Mediterranean on 18 September 1797.

She had sailed from Cayenne and earlier had been in company with the French corvette Gaité, which however the British frigate HMS Arethusa had captured on 10 August.

On 7 August she was escorting the Oran convoy when she encountered the Genoese pirate, the 26-gun Liguria, some three leagues off Cape Windmill.

[11][12] Admiral Jervis, Earl of St Vincent, needing an advice boat, took her into service the next day as Fulminante.

One of the two xebecs hoisted Spanish colours and it and the brig formed in line ahead to engage Espoir.

Africa mounted 14 long Spanish 4-pounder guns and four brass 4-pounder swivels, and had a crew of 75 seamen and 38 soldiers from Algosamus, bound to Malaga.

After exchanging fire for an hour and a half, Espoir seized the opportunity to board Africa.

"[16] Espoir and Majestic shared the prize money for the xebec, whose full name was Nostra Senora de Africa.

[7] On 12 May Espoir arrived at Palermo bearing the news that the French fleet had been sighted off Oporto and was believed to be sailing to the Mediterranean.

[15] While at Gibraltar Sanders observed Spanish gunboats capture a merchant brig between Cabrita Point and Ceuta.

Here several feet of her counter fell out when the copper was removed, bearing out Bland's earlier condemnation of her condition.