During her brief career Sandfly shared in the capture of one privateer and participated in a battle that would earn her crew the Naval General Service Medal.

They retreated in confusion after coming under fire from the redoubts the British had erected on East Island and from the gunvessels,[4] among them the hoys Badger, Serpent, Shark, and Hawke.

[5] On 21 February 1797, Badger, Sandfly, and the hired armed cutters Champion and Fly captured the 16-gun chasse maree Souris.

They sent a large flotilla of boats, including of 52 gun-brigs and flat-bottomed ones with troops), to mount the attack shortly before dawn.

[10] In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Iles St. Marcou" to the three surviving claimants from Badger and Sandfly.

[2] When the British returned the islets to France in mid-May 1802, after the Peace of Amiens, Sandfly was paid off in June.