In 1840, San Antonio was part of the Texas Navy flotilla led by Commodore Edwin Ward Moore which was dispatched to assist Yucatecan rebels that had taken up arms against Mexico.

They were identified as being "[p]urposely built and fitted out for use in the slave trade by the United States Consul General in Havana", and Asp was typical of the class.

After a two-month cruise, San Antonio returned to Galveston with James Treat, who had unsuccessfully sought diplomatic recognition for Texas from the Mexican government.

[3] For the rest of 1840, San Antonio patrolled Texas waters, conducting surveying and cartographic operations and suppressing smuggling.

Texas Secretary of War and Marine George Washington Hockley sent orders to Moore by way of the San Antonio for him to return to Galveston immediately with the ships.

Commodore Moore dispatched her to pick up Thomas S. Lubbock, a survivor of President Mirabeau B. Lamar's Santa Fe expedition, who had escaped his captors and made his way to Yucatan.

Moore dispatched the schooner to Yucatán about 1 October 1842 by way of Galveston and Matagorda to attempt to raise funds for the fast-failing Texas fleet.

Sergeant Oswald escaped jail in New Orleans and was never brought to justice, and Frederick Shepard, a mutineer who was spared because he testifying against the others, was killed in action three weeks later in the Naval Battle of Campeche.