"Africa" was commissioned by Captain Thomas Newnham in March 1781. In January of the following year command of the ship changed to Captain Robert McDowell and under him she sailed to the East Indies in the squadron of Commodore Sir Richard Bickerton on 6 February 1782. As such "Africa" fought in the unsuccessful Battle of Cuddalore on 20 June 1783. With the American Revolutionary War having ended in September she returned home to Britain where she was paid off in May 1784. The ship was then put in ordinary at Plymouth Dockyard in June. "Africa" was briefly commissioned for one month by Captain James Kempthorne in November 1790 but this was her only service until the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792.