Under Captain Robert Spottiswoode she sailed to the coast of India and to China, leaving on 17 March 1800 and returning on 17 June 1801.

[1] Before she sailed Spottiswoode arranged for a letter of marque for Lord Nelson, the warrant being dated 14 February 1800.

She went on to Penang, which she reached on 27 August, Malacca (23 September), Whampoa anchorage (2 November), and Second Bar (of the Pearl River; 29 December).

[7][6] Lord Nelson was on her return voyage when on 14 August 1803 she encountered the French three-masted privateer Bellone off Cape Clear, Ireland.

Bellone, of Saint Malo,[8] had had some success privateering in the Indian Ocean towards the end of the French Revolutionary Wars.

[e] Perroud put on board a prize crew of 41 men under the command of Lieutenant Fougie and the two vessels sailed towards A Coruña.

[10] In the course of another day, a hired armed cutter of twelve 4-pounder guns shadowed Lord Nelson before sailing away.

[16] Seagull, under the command of Captain Henry Burke, had escorted a convoy from Plymouth to Cork and on her way back encountered a Portuguese schooner that reported having met with a French privateer off Cape Clear.

Boats from Colossus boarded Lord Nelson where they found that five of her original crew had been serving the guns in the fight against Seagull.

They protested that they were Americans (not renegade Englishmen, and so free agents), but the prize crew put them in chains pending subsequent further investigation in Britain.

The East India company, with the agreement of Lloyd's Underwriters, agreed a salvage of one-sixth the value of Lord Nelson.

The East India Company rewarded Spottiswoode with a valuable sword and a service of plate in recognition of his gallant defence of Lord Nelson.

[13] The whole episode of the capture and recapture of Lord Nelson provides the narrative of Chapter 5 of Patrick O'Brian's novel Post Captain in his Aubrey–Maturin series with the addition of his fictional characters Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin being among the passengers aboard Lord Nelson.

[22] Orrok died in mid-1805 at St Helena on the return leg of the trip,[23] and while it is not certain who was captain for the remainder of the voyage, it was probably her first lieutenant Frederick Gaillard.

Lord Nelson reached St Helena on 27 June, the Cape of Good Hope on 26 August, Diamond Harbour on 12 November, Saugor on 26 December, Madras on 10 January 1807 and Bombay 19 February.

The captains were furious, and remonstrated with Pellew, informing him that he had left them too shorthanded to sail safely back to Britain.

[26] When Hutton and Lord Nelson had arrived in the Far East, he had lost 38 men to impressment to various naval vessels.