First commissioned in March 1796 for service in the North Sea, Trent was briefly involved in the fleet mutinies of 1797 but returned to duty when Admiral Adam Duncan's flagship came alongside and threatened to open fire.

In November, Trent sailed for the Leeward Islands where, on 30 March 1799, she and the armed cutter, HMS Sparrow, captured a Spanish ship and a schooner in a cutting out expedition off Puerto Rico.

In October 1800, while serving in the English Channel, Trent's crew took part in another boat action when they boarded a cutter and a lugger off the Ile de Brehat.

[a][2] Frigates of the period were three-masted, full-rigged ships that carried their main battery on a single, continuous gun deck.

[b] Carronades were lighter so could be manoeuvred with fewer men, and had a faster rate of fire but had a much shorter range than the long gun.

[13] When fully manned, Amazon-class frigates had a complement of 264[2] but due to a perpetual shortage of seamen during periods of war, Trent averaged a crew of less than 248 throughout her career.

[2][14] On 22 May 1797, during the Nore Mutiny, Trent's crew disobeyed an order to set sail but returned to duty after Duncan, in the ship-of-the-line, HMS Venerable, threatened to open fire on them.

When the four ships reached Texel, Duncan sent Circe and Trent to cruise off the island in full sight of the enemy while making bogus signals to a non-existent fleet.

[2] Trent, in company with the armed cutter, HMS Sparrow, was cruising off Puerto Rico on 30 March 1799, when several Spanish vessels were spotted in a bay near Cabo Rojo.

[17][18] The Spanish flotilla, comprising a merchant ship and three schooners, was riding at anchor in the shoal water, under the protection of a five-gun shore battery.

Sparrow, being of shallower draught, was able to get close enough to provide covering fire, while marines and seamen were landed to deal with the shore guns.

[2] In October 1800, Captain Edward Hamilton was appointed to Trent in the English Channel and given command of a small squadron blockading the French ports of St Malo, Cherbourg and Le Havre.

When it became obvious that battle was inevitable, the ship was cut loose and the remaining French vessels retreated to within range of the shore batteries.

Isaac Wooley and after, James Katon served as captains before Trent returned to home waters in June to be recommissioned under Commander Walter Grosset and fitted as a hospital ship at Plymouth.