In the action of 11 November 1779 Captain Alex Graeme of HMS Tartar brought her to battle off Lisbon and captured her.

[1][2] She was taken into Royal Navy service by an Admiralty order of 16 March 1780; she was then repaired and refitted at Sheerness between February 1780 and June 1781.

[1] Santa Margarita was commissioned in March 1781 under Captain Elliot Salter, who sailed her to North America where she formed part of George Johnstone's squadron in June 1781.

Santa Margarita was recommissioned under Captain Eliab Harvey in 1793, and sailed to the Leeward Islands in December that year.

She then formed part of the fleet in the West Indies under John Jervis, and was present at the capture of Martinique in February 1794.

[4] A few days earlier the squadron to which Cerberus and Santa Margarita belonged shared in the capture of Jean Bart and the recapture of Caldicot Castle.

In September 1795 a French squadron captured Hibberts, Chisolm, master, as she was sailing from Jamaica to London, but Santa Margarita recaptured her.

[1] Santa Margarita sailed to the Leeward Islands again in March 1798, and at the end of the year captured the 14-gun privateer Quatorze Juillet.