In her brief career she detained, took, or destroyed a number of small prizes before October 1800, when she foundered, with the loss of most of her crew and passengers.

In autumn 1799, a convoy of merchant vessels from England and Cork sailed to Jamaica under escort by the frigate Crescent and the sloop Calypso.

The convoy was negotiating the Mona Passage and was 10 or 12 leagues south-west of Puerto Rico on the morning of 15 November when it encountered a small Spanish squadron that was sailing from Santo Domingo to Havana.

[8] When Lord Hugh Seymour transferred from the Leeward Islands to Jamaica, he sent Galgo to relieve Surinam, that she and her captain, Lieutenant Christopher Cole, might join him.

Before she foundered, one naval officer who had dined aboard her, described her as ...how very sharp and crank the brig appeared, and that being (to use a trite phrase) "all legs and wings like a butterfly", I should not like to belong to her, from a conviction, that if she ever was caught in one of the "white squalls" so peculiar to the climate, she would, in all probability, be converted into a wholesale coffin for all hands.

Captain Stovin agreed, but while the crew was taking in some of the sails, a squall hit that pushed Galgo on her side.

"[10][a] Next morning, Hunter, an American ship under the command of Captain John McClintock and sailing from the West Indies to Bristol,[b] happened to come by and rescued the survivors.

[11] As a consequence of the loss of Galgo, the Admiralty sent out an order barring the purchase of any more vessels captured from the enemy.