In 1781 Captain Parry was promoted to command of the 44-gun , and was replaced aboard "Lizard" by Captain Edmund Dod. The frigate was assigned to protect a convoy of merchant vessels sailing for the West Indies, departing from England in March. On arrival in April, "Lizard" was formally added to the Navy's Leeward Islands Station and took up her post in the waters off Martinique and Jamaica. In January 1782 she was assigned to a fleet under Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, which had sailed to the relief of the besieged British settlement on Saint Kitts. While "en route" to Saint Kitts at the head of Hood's fleet, "Lizard" encountered and captured the 16-gun French cutter "lEspion", laden with a cargo of artillery shells and other ammunition. The French vessel was taken as a prize.