On her first voyage the brig sailed to Isle de France (Mauritius) in the Indian Ocean as an armed transport with a license to attack enemy ships.

[5] The frigate Melampus was in company with the sloop Driver when they captured Fantome in the mid Atlantic on the brig's return voyage from the Indian Ocean on 28 May 1810.

[2] In February 1813, during the War of 1812, Fantome joined a squadron off the American coast under the command of Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, consisting of the 74-gun ships San Domingo, Marlborough and Dragon, and the frigates Maidstone and Statira.

Boats of the squadron, under the command of Lieutenant Puckingthorne of San Domingo, rowed 15 miles upriver, where they found four armed schooners drawn up in line.

At dawn on 2 May boats containing 150 marines, and a small party of artillerymen attacked, drove off the defenders and captured the battery.

[15] On 29 April, boats from Dolphin, Dragon, Fantome, Highflyer, Maidstone, Marlborough, Mohawk, Racer and Statira went up the Elk River in Chesapeake Bay under the personal command of Rear-Admiral Sir George Cockburn.

On 30 April Highflyer supported Fantome and Mohawk's boats when the vessels gathered cattle for the fleet's use, paying with bills on the Victualling Office.

The next day, the vessels secured more cattle from Spesutie (Spesucie) Island just south of Havre de Grace.

[18] While operating in the Chesapeake, Fantome rescued a number of families of enslaved African Americans who had escaped from plantations as part of the Black Refugee migration in the War of 1812.

Seventy men left Halifax in Fantome on 22 January for Saint John, New Brunswick, then travelled with sleighs to Fredericton, a distance of 80 miles.

Leaving on 8 February they made between 15 and 22 miles a day through knee-deep snow along the St. Lawrence, reaching Quebec on the 28th, taking shelter in the frigate Aeolus and the sloop Indian, frozen up in Wolfe's Cove.

[31] The brig Dantzic, J.Reid, master, was sailing from Bath to Bermuda with a cargo of lumber, boards, staves, and shingles.

[33] The subsequent court martial reprimanded Sykes for failing to order frequent soundings and for relying too much on the pilot.

It ordered Lieutenant John Fisher, the officer of the watch, to be more careful in the future, especially in keeping the captain aware of his ship's situation.

It severely reprimanded the master, Joseph Forster, for not taking continuous sounding and for not informing the captain about his reservations concerning the course being steered.

Lastly, the court martial severely reprimanded the pilot, Thomas Robinson, for countermanding the captain's order, and for sailing too close to the shore and without taking soundings.

[34] Some treasure hunters have claimed the convoy that Fantome was escorting was laden with goods taken from the White House during the British raid on Washington, DC.

[35] However Fantome played no part in the Washington raid and historians agree that the convoy was carrying goods and customs revenue from Castine.

[6] This article includes data released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported UK: England & Wales Licence, by the National Maritime Museum, as part of the Warship Histories project.