Under Captain Henry Levely, the schooner soon commenced privateering along the East Coast of the United States and in the West Indies seeking British shipping.

Nonsuch fought these two ships for three hours in an extremely furious battle, causing great confusion and killing or wounding a considerable number of the enemy.

Nonsuch captured British schooner Sancho Panza in early April 1813 and took the cutter Caledonia (8 guns and 40 men), of Nassau, Hinson, master,[5] following a bloody seven-minute fight on the 9th.

In 1819, she, with frigates John Adams and Constellation, sailed in a squadron under Captain Oliver Hazard Perry, for the Orinoco River, Venezuela, arriving 15 July.

A favorable treaty was signed on 11 August, but by the time Nonsuch started downriver, Perry and many of her crew had been stricken with yellow fever.

Returning to the United States, Nonsuch operated off the East Coast and in the Caribbean against piracy and made a short deployment to the Mediterranean.