Early in 1802, Hippomenes, under the command of Captain-Lieutenant Melvill, was assigned to the West Indies and Guinea coast division of the Batavian Republic's navy.

After the end of the French Revolutionary Wars, the British returned the Dutch colonies they had captured in the West Indies to the Republic.

In August 1802, Captain Cornelius Hubertus Buchman, of Kenau Hasselar, took a small squadron that also included the frigate Proserpina, Hippomenes, the cutter Rose, and the schooner Serpent, to take possession of Curaçao.

[4] When Commodore Sir Samuel Hood arrived to take command in the Leeward Islands, he raised his pennant in the 74-gun third rate Centaur.

[11] The French vessel struck her colours as soon as Hippomenes pulled alongside, with the result that the British suffered only one man wounded.

The squadron consisted of Hood's flagship Centaur, Pandour, Serapis, Alligator, Hippomenes, Drake, the schooner Unique, and transports carrying 2000 troops under Brigadier-General Sir Charles Green.

[13] On 24 April, Hippomenes escorted a convoy carrying a division of the army under Brigadier-General Frederick Maitland to land at Warappa creek to collect enough boats from the plantations to transport troops to the rear of Fort New Amsterdam.

[14] On 30 April, Kenneth Mackenzie (or M'Kenzie) of the 16-gun, ex-French privateer brig Guachapin, who had left his ship 50 leagues to leeward and brought up her boats,[13] assisted Shipley in superintending the landing of Maitland's troops at Warappa.

In the fight on the privateer, the British lost five dead and eight wounded; only nine of the original 18 managed to escape back to Hippomenes (two officers and two men remained on board Buonaparte as prisoners).

[22] On 27 March 1808 the boats of Hippomenes joined those of Ulysses, Castor, and Morne Fortunee in an attempt to cut out the 16-gun French brig Griffon at Marin, Martinique.

[1] They succeeded in capturing a battery but were driven back empty handed, having suffered heavy casualties from the brig's fire.

The "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" first offered the sloop Hippmenes, of 417 tons, then lying at Portsmouth, for sale 27 November 1811.

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