HMS Flirt was launched in 1782 but was completed too late to see any significant service in the American War of Independence.

Daniel Bennett purchased her, had her almost rebuilt, and then employed her as a whaler in the Southern Whale Fishery.

She was then paid off in 1783, but recommissioned in April under Commander William Luke and stationed between Beachy Head and the Isle of Wight.

[4] George Bass, who would go on to achieve fame as an explorer, qualified as a surgeon for a first-rate (as a 13-year old), but his first appointment was to Flirt.

[2] In August 1802, the Honourable the Court of Directors of the East India Company announced that they had licensed 19 vessels, Albion, Charming Kitty, and Flirt among them, to sail east of the Cape of Good Hope to engage in whaling in the "Southern Whale Fishery".

In June 1803, the French privateer captain François Aregnaudeau took command of the 32-gun 550-ton corvette Blonde, from Bordeaux.

[10] He had a successful cruise, most notably capturing the East Indiaman Culland's Grove on 22 July.

[11] 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.