"Pandora"'s first service was in the Channel during the 1779 threatened invasion by the combined fleets of France and Spain. The ship was deployed in North American waters during the American War Of Independence and saw service as a convoy escort between England and Quebec. On 18 July 1780, while under the command of Captain Anthony Parry, "Pandora" and captured the American privateer "Jack". Then on 2 September, the two British vessels captured the American privateer "Terrible". On 14 January "Pandora" captured the brig "Janie". Then on 11 March she captured the ship "Mercury". Two days later "Pandora" and were off the Capes of Virginia when they captured the sloop "Louis", which had been sailing to Virginia with a cargo of cider and onions. Under Captain John Inglis "Pandora" captured more merchant vessels. The first was the brig "Lively" on 24 May 1782. More followed: the ship "Mercury" and the sloops "Port Royal" and "Superb" (22 November 1782), the brig "Nestor" (3 February 1783), and the ship "Financier" (29 March). At the end of the American war the Admiralty placed "Pandora" in ordinary (mothballed) in 1783 at Chatham for seven years.