[3] On 1 January 1781 the British took possession of an abandoned settee on which there were letters, with one mentioning that the vessel that had attacked Speedwell had suffered several men killed and wounded.

Five men deserted Speedwell on 11 April after helping tow the cutter Tartar out of the Mole.

[7] About half the crew were amenable to the planned mutiny, which had the mutineers rising, killing the officers, and then sailing Speedwell to Algerciras.

[8] On 3 December a crewman from Speedwell stole a fishing boat and made for the Spanish shore before some fishermen set out after him and brought him back.

Each was armed with an 18-pounder gun, and received a crew of 21 men drawn from Royal Navy vessels stationed at Gibraltar.

[14] Around 11 October, a storm came up and drove the Spanish two-decker San Miguel close to Gibraltar, apparently in some distress.

San Miguel, of 72 guns, had a complement of 634 men under the command of Don Juan Moreno.

In December 1784 there was a distribution of £30,000 in bounty money for the batteries and the proceeds of the sale of ships' stores, including those of San Miguel.

She underwent fitting at Portsmouth, and in November Lieutenant Richard Willis recommissioned her for service off the Isle of Arran.

[2] In August, King George, with Queen Charlotte and the three princesses, visited Plymouth Dockyard and inspected the Navy there.

[26] Shortly before the start of the war with France, Monke sailed Speedwell to Hamburg to retrieve some British sailors rescued from various vessels that had wrecked on the coast of Jutland.

Monke was forced to stay on deck day and night, although on the way back to Britain the weather was bad, to forestall any uprising by the rescued sailors.

The fear was that the sailors, who were not anxious to be pressed into the Royal Navy, would try to seize Speedwell and run her ashore.

[1] During the night of 22–23 August 1796, the French privateer cutter Brave approached Speedwell off St Catherine's Point on the Isle of Wight and attempted to board her.

[1] Lieutenant James Reddy replaced Birchall in September 1798, sailing Speedwell for the North Sea.

On 7 August 1798 Busy and Speedwell intercepted in the North Sea a Swedish convoy under the escort of HSwMS Ulla Fersen.

Although Sweden was neutral, Ulla Fersen's captain acceded to this demand as the two British vessels out-gunned him and he wanted to avoid loss of life.

On 24 September Admiral Andrew Mitchell reported that he detached Captain Boorder, in Espeigle, with Speedwell, to scour the Coast from Steveren to Lemmer.

In early April 1800 "the Speedwell Cutter" brought into Yarmouth Fancy de Jersey, which she had recaptured off Goree.