Phoenix was involved in several single-ship actions, the most notable occurring on 10 August 1805 when she captured the French frigate Didon, which was more heavily armed than her.

Cornwallis ordered Phoenix to stop and search the French frigate Résolue, which was escorting a number of merchant ships that the British believed were carrying military supplies to support Tippu Sultan.

[3] On 27 November 1793, the ships of a squadron under the command of Captain Thomas Pasley of HMS Bellerophon captured Blonde.

[4] A subsequent prize money notice listed the vessels that shared in the proceeds as Bellerophon, Vanguard, Phoenix, Latona, and Phaeton.

[8] On 12 May 1796 at daybreak the 28-gun Pegasus and the brig-sloop Sylph brought Duncan the news that a Dutch squadron consisting of the 36-gun frigate Argo and three brigs had departed Flickeroe, Norway, bound for the Texel.

[10] Phoenix carried eight 32-pounder carronades in lieu of her lighter guns in the upper works as well as her main battery of twenty-six 18-pounders, and a crew of 271 men and boys.

On 12 February 1797 Phoenix was in company with HMS Unite, Stag, Triton and Scourge at the capture of the French privateer Difficile.

The next day, Phoenix recaptured Thetis, an American ship that had been sailing from Charlestown to London when Brave had captured her.

On 23 January 1799 Phoenix captured the 20-gun French privateer Foudroyant on the Irish station after a pursuit of some 12 hours that covered over 120 miles.

The squadron consisted of HMS Minotaur, Phoenix, Mondovi, Entreprenante, and the tender Victoire, all under the command of Vice-Admiral Lord Keith.

She was sailing from Toulon with provisions for Genoa when she encountered Port Mahon, which initiated the chase about 35 miles west of Corsica.

She was partly laden with brandy, wine, cheese and pork, two days from Toulon on her way to Malta with dispatches, which she threw overboard prior to her capture.

Around 2 May she left her station off Porto-Ferrajo, which gave the French the opportunity to establish a blockade that lasted until 1 August when Sir John Borlase Warren with his squadron arrived to lift it.

[19][31] He was assigned to the Channel Fleet under Admiral William Cornwallis, and on 10 August 1805 he came across the 40-gun French frigate Didon off Cape Finisterre.

[19][31] Prior to the sighting Phoenix had intercepted an American merchant, en route from Bordeaux to the United States.

Didon, which was carrying despatches instructing Rear-Admiral Allemand's five ships of the line to unite with the combined Franco-Spanish fleet under Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, intercepted the American merchant and from him received news that a 20-gun British ship was at sea and might be foolish enough to attack Didon.

[32] Didon's commander, Captain Milius, decided to await the arrival of the British ship, and take her as a prize.

[31][36] The following day the combined fleet under Villeneuve, heading for Brest and then on to Boulogne to escort the French invasion forces across the Channel sighted the three British ships.

Villeneuve mistook the British ships for scouts from the Channel Fleet and fled south to avoid an action.

'[37] Villeneuve's failure to press north was a decisive point of the Trafalgar Campaign as far as the invasion of England went, for abandoning all hope of fulfilling his plans to secure control of the Channel Napoleon gathered the Armée d'Angleterre, now renamed the Grande Armée, and headed east to attack the Austrians in the Ulm Campaign.

[37][39] The British ships altered their course and made for Plymouth, where they arrived on 3 September, having prevented an attempt by their French prisoners to capture Phoenix and retake Didon.

Baker was under orders to patrol west of the Isles of Scilly when meeting some merchantmen he received intelligence that they had seen a small squadron of presumably French ships of the line in the Bay of Biscay.

Phoenix sailed in search of Sir Richard Strachan's squadron to report the find, who, as it happened, was fairly close by.

[41] Serving aboard Phoenix at this time, as first lieutenant was Samuel Brown, later to become a distinguished engineer and reach the rank of captain.

In the first week of January 1807, Phoenix and the hired armed brig Colpoys sent into Plymouth Cupedo, which had been sailing from Montevideo to St Sebastian.

Phoenix despatched the 18-gun brig-sloop Raleigh to England with the information and sailed in search of the watching squadron under Strachan, which bad weather had driven out to sea.

On 28 January 1810 Phoenix, with the ship-sloop Jalouse, chased the 14-gun French privateer brig Charles, but lost her in thick fog.

[44] Still, the boats succeeded in taking Charles, where they found two English masters and 13 seamen who had been taken out of vessels a few days previously.

[49] Phoenix, Aquilon, Garland, and Renard next proceeded to the Greek Archipelago in search of a French squadron comprising the frigate Junon, the 32-gun corvette Victorieuse, two brigs and two large schooners, which had been preying on trade in the area.

[49] Phoenix was lost in a storm off Smyrna (İzmir) on 20 February 1816, due to the ignorance of her pilots when a sudden change of wind threw her on the shore.