British Tar was probably launched in Spain, though possibly in the United States, in 1793. She appears to have come into British hands as a prize in 1802, but she does not appear in the British registers until 1804. In January 1806 British Tar, W. White, master, Pinson & Co., owner, was on a voyage from Labrador in British North America to a Mediterranean port during the War of the Third Coalition when a French Navy squadron captured and burned her in the Mediterranean Sea.