Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson captured her at Aboukir Bay off the coast of Egypt at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798.

Tonnant became the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane when he assumed command of the North American Station in March of 1814 during the War of 1812 with the United States.

On 7 September 1814 Francis Scott Key and John Stuart Skinner dined aboard the ship while seeking the release of a captured civilian prisoner, several days before the Battle of Baltimore.

Key went on to write what later became the words to the American national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner" after watching the British attack on Baltimore's Fort McHenry.

Tonnant was the lead ship in a class of 80-gun two-deckers built to a design by Jacques-Noël Sané, and ordered on 19 October 1787.

[1] Tonnant fought in the battles of Genoa on 14 March 1795 and The Nile on 1 August 1798 under Aristide Aubert Du Petit Thouars.

During the battle, she severely damaged HMS Majestic, causing nearly two hundred casualties, including 50 killed and 143 wounded.

[4] Next, Tonnant, Mars and Spartiate captured the Dutch ships Coffee Baum and Maasluys on 2 and 4 June.

[a] Tonnant was part of Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Calder's squadron off Cape Ortegal when she encountered the French ships Duguay-Trouin and Guerrière on 2 September 1803.

They escaped her but British naval forces of varying strengths harried them during their journey back to port and they only just made it to the safety of A Coruña.

[b] Then on 29 November, Ardent destroyed Bayonnoise; Tonnant was among the vessels sharing, by agreement, in the bounty money.

[14] Tonnant then was among the vessels sharing in the captures of Goede Hoop on 9 July and Carl Ludwig on 2 August.

[2] Tonnant served as the flagship for Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane during the final months of the campaign in Chesapeake Bay.

[e] After his release, Skinner, Key and Beanes were then transferred to the frigate HMS Surprise and later allowed to return to their own truce vessel sloop, but were not allowed to return to Baltimore because they had become familiar with the strength and position of British units and knew of the British intention to attack Baltimore.

[22][23] After Major General Robert Ross's death in the Battle of North Point, his body was stored in a barrel of 129 gallons (586 L) of Jamaican rum aboard Tonnant.

Tonnant continued to serve Cochrane as a flagship when he directed the British naval forces at the Battle of New Orleans.

On 8 December 1814, two US gunboats fired on Sophie, Armide and the sixth-rate frigate Seahorse while they were passing the chain of small islands that runs parallel to the shore between Mobile and Lake Borgne.

[25] Between 12 and 15 December 1814, Captain Lockyer of Sophie led a flotilla of 42 boats, barges, launches and 3 unarmed gigs to attack the US gunboats.

One longboat from Tonnant, commanded by Lieutenant James Barnwell Tattnall grappled the largest gunboat and was sunk,[26] its boarding party transferred to the other ships' boats.

In 1821 the survivors of the flotilla shared in the distribution of head-money arising from the capture of the American gunboats and sundry bales of cotton.