army in Italy. Minerve and Peterel shared the proceeds of the capture of Virginie with and . Then on 8 November, Minerve and the hired armed brig captured Mouche. On 15 May 1800, Minerve and the schooner captured the French privateer cutter Vengeance. Vengeance was armed with 15 guns and had a crew of 132 men. In September 1801 Minerve was in the Mediterranean protecting Elba. Early on 2 September Minerve alerted , which was anchored off Piombino, to the presence of two French frigates nearby. Phoenix and Minerve set out in pursuit and soon came up and joined them. Pomone re-captured , a former British 32-gun fifth-rate frigate now under the command of Monsieur Britel. (The French had captured Success in February, off Toulon.) Minerve also ran onshore the 46-gun French frigate , which had a crew of 283 men under the command of Monsieur Dordelin. Bravoure lost her masts and was totally wrecked; she struck without a shot being fired. Minerve took off a number of prisoners, including Dordelin and his officers, in her boats. With enemy fire from the shore and with night coming on, Captain Cockburn of Minerve decided to halt the evacuation of prisoners; he therefore was unwilling to set Bravoure on fire because some of her crew remained on board. Napoleonic Wars Shortly after war with France had resumed Minerve was in the Channel and under the command of Captain Jahleel Brenton. On 26 May 1803 she arrested the French exploration ship and brought her into Portsmouth, even though Naturaliste was flying a cartel flag and had passports attesting to her non-combatant character. The British released Naturliste and she arrived at Le Havre on 6 June 1803. In the evening of 2 July, during a fog, Minerve ran aground near Cherbourg. She had been pursuing some merchant vessels when she hit. The guns of Île Pelée and the gunboats (Captain Lécolier) and Captain Pétrée immediately engaged her. Minerves crew attempted to refloat her, but the fire forced Brenton to surrender at 5:30 in the morning, after she had lost 12 men killed and about 15 men wounded. Brenton attributed his defeat to fire from Fort Liberté at Île Pelée, although the artillery of the fort comprised only three pieces (its other guns had been moved to the fort on the Îles Saint-Marcouf), fired at extreme range, and had ceased fire during the night; on