Originally the French ship Marquis de Vaudreuil, she was captured by the Royal Navy in 1757 and refitted as a survey vessel for the 1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole.

She was reclassed and refitted as a fireship (re-armed with just eight 6-pounders), and then as a bomb vessel (with the addition of one 13-inch and one 10-inch mortars) and was recommissioned under Commander Francis Richards for service in North American waters.

[1] A young Horatio Nelson served as a midshipman aboard the second ship of the small squadron, HMS Carcass under captain Skeffington Lutwidge, second in command of the Phipps expedition.

The expedition left the Nore on 10 June and passed along the western coast of Svalbard and advanced to latitude 80°50'N before reaching impenetrable ice front.

They came in sight of Sjuøyane off Svalbard's north coast and midshipman John Walden, along with two pilots, landed on the westernmost island on 5 August of the same year.