"Lizard"s first commission was in the Mediterranean, and later on the south-east coast of South America. She took part in an Anglo-French action in Uruguay in 1845, during which she was "riddled from stem to stern" passing the San Lorenzo shore battery, and suffered 4 men killed and 4 wounded. On 1 August 1848, she assisted in the refloating on the British merchant ship "Sappho", which had run aground in the River Plate on 23 July. By 1858 she, like her sister ship, was engaged in fishery protection duties off Scotland, as a tender to .