Captain William Selby took command of
Cerberus in April 1803. On 13 August
Cerberuss boats made an attack on Concalle Bay. There they captured a large fishing boat but had to abandon a sloop they had captured after she grounded. At Cas Bay another cutting out party captured seven fishing boats of 16-18 tons burthen each. As the prize crews brought the boats to Guernsey one was upset, drowning two crew men from
Cerberus. On 13 September
Cerberus served as flagship to Admiral Sir
James Saumarez. Saumarez commanded a small squadron comprising the sloops of war
Charwell and , the schooner , the cutter , and the
bomb vessels and . The squadron massed for a bombardment of the port of
Granville where there were some gunboats moored. The squadron bombarded the port several times over the next two days. On 15 September, as
Cerberus was withdrawing, she grounded. For the three hours it took to refloat her nine gunboats harried her, but without effect. Head money for the unknown vessel was paid in May 1824.
Action against privateers Cerberus was later involved in another engagement, this time on 2 April 1805 off Madeira. A strange sail was spotted at daylight and
Cerberus gave chase, eventually overhauling and capturing her quarry. The vessel was the
privateer brig Bonheur, of 114 tons. She was armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 46 men under the command of Francis Folliott. She had sailed 13 days earlier from
Cherbourg but during her cruise she had only managed to make a single capture. At some point
Cerberus was under the temporary command of Lieutenant Baker while Selby was absent. Baker felt indisposed and went ashore at Guernsey where he died a few hours later.
Cerberus continued to serve in the Atlantic, escorting convoys to the West Indies. On 15 May 1806, while she was escorting one such convoy, dawn revealed a suspicious vessel hovering near the fleet. Selby gave chase and after a six-hour pursuit captured the
Aimable Theresa. She was armed with two brass howitzers and had a crew of 18 men. She was carrying a cargo of wine and merchandise, and had left
Santiago de Cuba three days previously.
In the West Indies By December 1806
Cerberus was in the West Indies, and in company with was reconnoitering the ports of
Guadeloupe and
Îles des Saintes. They found little of interest, except a 16-gun brig at Îles des Saintes. Selby left
Circe, under Captain Pigot to watch her, whilst he took
Cerberus on a cruise. On 2 January, as
Cerberus was sailing between
Martinique and
Dominique lookouts sighted a privateer schooner, with a schooner and a sloop standing nearby. The three ships were heading for
St. Pierre.
Cerberus gave chase, cutting them off from the port and forcing them to anchor close to shore, under cover of a battery near the Pearl Rock. In September and October
Cerberus captured several Danish vessels. On 30 September she captured the schooner
Sylenus. assisted at the capture. That same day,
Cerberus and
Cygnet also captured
Fanny. Next day,
Cerberus captured the sloop (or
galliot)
Mary. The brig assisted at the capture of
Mary. On 20 October, ,
Circe, ,
Cerberus,
Cygnet, , and
Hart shared in the capture of the Danish schooner
Danske Patriot. The vessels shared His Majesty's grant for the capture as members of a squadron as on 16 October
Pert had already been lost in a storm. Then on 31 October
Cerberus captured the schooner
Nancy.
Nancy was carrying a cargo of enslaved Senegalese Africans in the waters of the British Virgin Islands. In December
Cerberus was part of the squadron under Admiral Sir
Alexander Cochrane that
captured the Danish islands of
St Thomas on 22 December and
Santa Cruz on 25 December. The Danes did not resist and the invasion was bloodless. In early 1808 Captain Selby was the commander of the blockading squadron covering
Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. He realized that the French privateers were using the batteries on
Marie-Galante to shelter themselves and their prizes and decided to remedy the situation. He sent Pigot with 200 seamen and marines from
Cerberus,
Circe, and to capture the island. Pigot landed his force early on 2 March some two miles from Grand Bourg and the garrison duly capitulated. The British also captured a number of cannons and some small arms. In 1825 shared in the prize money with the other three vessels.
Cerberus remained in the area, and on 29 March and in company with
Lilly,
Pelican, ,
Swinger, and , sailed from Marie-Galante to attack the island of
La Désirade. They arrived on 30 March and sent in a landing party of seamen and marines from the vessels of the squadron, all under the overall command of Captain Sherriff of
Lily. As the boats approached they exchanged fire with a battery of 9-pounder guns covering the entrance to the harbour. The ships' guns silenced the battery and the French surrendered.
The Baltic Cerberus then returned to England and was paid off at
Deptford later in 1808. Between August and 1808 and March 1809,
Cerberus underwent a substantial repair and fitting at Deptford.
Cerberus was recommissioned in March 1809 under the command of Captain Henry Whitby. She then sailed to the Baltic, where she participated in the
Anglo-Russian War. Thus on 25 July 17 boats from a British squadron, consisting of
Cerberus, , and attacked a flotilla of four enemy gunboats and a brig off
Aspö Head near Fredrickshamn (present-day
Hamina,
Finland), in the
Grand Duchy of Finland,
Russia. Captain Forrest of
Prometheus commanded the boats and succeeded in capturing gunboats Nos. 62, 65, and 66, and the transport brig No. 11. The action was sanguinary in that the British lost 19 men killed and 51 wounded, and the Russians lost 28 men killed and 59 wounded. Lieutenant Simpson commanded the
Cerberuss boats, which had five seamen and two marines wounded in the operation. In 1847 the Admiralty issued the NGSM with clasp "25 July Boat Service 1809" to surviving claimants from the action.
Cerberus then moved to the Mediterranean in 1810. The day before the boats of the squadron also captured Ruffian schooner
Waffer. The Russian transport brig the boats captured on 25 July appears to have been
Nicholas Murioff.
The Mediterranean On 14 June 1810
Cerberus was cruising in the Mediterranean in company with and . Together, the three British vessels captured three French gun-boats:
Vincentina,
Modanese, and
Elvetica (or
Elvetria). Then on 28 June 1810 intercepted a convoy from
Trieste and chased it into
Grao.
Amphion and
Cerberus sent a number of boats into the harbour and after a brief struggle, captured the town, taking a number of French soldiers prisoner and discovering 25 vessels in the harbour. Boats from
Active reinforced the shore parties, enabling them repel, at bayonet point, a counterattack by more French troops. On the evening of 29 June, the British sailed five prizes and a number of prisoners out of the harbour and on to
Lissa. The British burnt 11 vessels in the river, and 14 or 15 boats after removing their cargoes. The British had four men killed and eight wounded, with five of the wounded being from
Cerberus; the French lost 10 men killed and eight men wounded. Prize taking continued the following year when Captain Whitby discovered four vessels anchored at
Pestichi on 4 February 1811. He dispatched a number of barges from
Cerberus and
Active to capture them. The British took three
trabaccolos, one the
Carlo Grimaldi, and sent them off to
Lissa, whilst burning a fourth after removing its cargo to
Active. In the action
Active had one seaman badly wounded. On 12 February boats from
Cerberus and
Active set out to secure a number of vessels spotted moored at
Ortano. As the boats attempted this, they came under heavy fire from shore positions but cleared all opposition. A party of marines and small arms men under the command of
Actives lieutenant of marines landed to secure the shore to protect the cutting out operation. The carronades on
Actives launches also provided cover. British casualties amounted to four men wounded. The British captured 11 Venetian vessels in all, most of which were from Ancona, bound for Corfu. The ones the British didn't burn they sent to Lissa. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the NGSM with clasp "Lissa" to all surviving claimants form the action.
Cerberus came under the command of Captain Robert Clephane in June 1811. Command then passed to Captain
Thomas Garth in December. On 16 June 1812 boats from
HMS Unite, , and
Cerberus captured three vessels of from eighty to one hundred tons in the small port of
Badisea, near Otranto. A little over a month later, on 17 July, boats from and
Cerberus captured or destroyed, off Venice, 12 enemy trabaccolos. On 29 January 1813, boats from
Cerberus captured a
trabaccolo of two guns, sailing to
Corfu, heavily laden with a cargo of corn and flour. Then on 13 March, she took the French
galiot Veloce, which was armed with one 18-pounder and which had a crew of 22 men, under the command of
officier de flottile Martinenq. She was sailing with money for the troops at Corfu. On 27 February,
Cerberus and
Achille were in company when they captured the brig
Centauro. On 19 March, boats from
Cerberus and destroyed several vessels, a battery and a tower three miles northwest of the port of
Monopoli near
Bari. On 17 May boats from
Apollo and
Cerberus took a vessel that ran aground near Brindisi. She was armed with a 9-pounder gun in the bow and a swivel gun. She was sailing from Otranto to Ancona.
Cerberus spent much of the first half of 1814 in the
Gulf of Venice. However, on 16 January the French frigate
Uranie escaped from Ancona.
Cerberus chased her into Brindisi. She did not pursue her further as Brindisi owed allegiance to the Kingdom of Naples, an English ally. When
Apollo arrived, the French unloaded the powder from
Uranie and set her on fire. ==Fate==