Just after daybreak on 21 October 1794, a squadron of three British frigates patrolling off Brest sighted a French warship and immediately gave chase. H.M.S. Artois, by dint of skilful seamanship, soon overhauled the enemy vessel and brought her to action. After forty minutes, by which time the other British ships were on the scene, the by-now crippled Frenchman struck her colours and surrendered. Thus was Revolutionnaire added to the Royal Navy and she was a prize indeed. Not only was she considerably larger than any British-built frigate then in service, but she was also brand new and had been captured only eight days into her maiden voyage.
Placed in the Channel Fleet, the newly commissioned H.M.S. Revolutionaire took part in Admiral Lord Bridport's defeat of the French fleet off the Isle de Groix on 23 June 1795, and then captured the French frigate Unité off Belle Isle on 12 April 1796. On 11 October 1799, Revolutionaire seized the valuable French privateer Bordelais off Ireland and she too was added to the King's service. In action again on 4 November 1805, when Sir Richard Strachan destroyed what had remained of the French fleet after Trafalgar, Revolutionaire also assisted in the operations to take San Sebastian in 1813. Her last recorded action was the capture of two Greek pirate ships off the west coast of Greece on 19 May 1821, after which she was withdrawn from service and broken up the following year.