Historical fiction author Patrick O'Brian set many of his Aubrey–Maturin series aboard HMS Surprise, including the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

He notified the authorities, who urged him to finish fitting out the ship because a major naval operation was imminent.

Soon afterwards, Unité took part in the battle of the Glorious First of June by escorting the dismasted Révolutionnaire as she was towed by the Audacieux.

Unwilling or unable to continue the mission alone, Unité searched for Bergere fruitlessly for sixteen days before finally returning to Brest on 1 November.

In April 1796, she was ordered on one such courier mission to North Africa to deliver personnel and messages to the port of Bône.

At the time, Le Drézénec, who had been recently promoted to capitaine de frégate, was suffering from smallpox and was incapacitated.

[10][a] On 10 October 1799, in the harbour of Aruba Surprise used her boats to cut out a privateer of ten guns, and two sloops.

Captain Edward Hamilton of Surprise led a boarding party to retake Hermione and, after an exceptionally bloody action, sailed her out under Spanish gunfire.

[2] After the Treaty of Amiens, the Royal Navy sold Surprise out of the service at Deptford in February 1802 and she was broken up.

[17] In the late 1990s, publisher W. W. Norton & Company rented the replica of HMS Rose in New York for a pier-side party to celebrate the publication of Patrick O’Brian's latest novel.

O’Brian was so impressed that he changed his mind about his prohibition of having any of his books converted into film, and Norton immediately started looking for a Hollywood production company.

[18] For the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, the role of Surprise was filled by the same replica of HMS Rose, which was purchased by the film studio and extensively modified at Baja Studios to resemble the original Surprise for the role.