In 1740 the powers of Europe went to war in what would come to be known as the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). Fearing hostilities, the General Assembly for the Colony of Rhode Island voted in February of that year to build a sloop for defensive purposes. Work on the 115-ton ship began immediately in Newport, with her keel being laid in March. She was launched in May and christened Tartar, after H.M.S. Tartar that visited Newport from England in 1737. She was armed with twelve carriage and twelve swivel guns and furnished with small arms, pistols and cutlasses. The cost of construction and outfitting was £8,679 (use a pound sign).
Her first cruise was in June in pursuit and successful capture of a French schooner sighted off the coast. Her first long cruise to foreign waters occurred over a year later when in October 1741 the General Assembly voted to send her to Cuba in transport of soldiers. Subsequent cruises involving transporting troops and escorting convoys followed.
In 1744 military operations shifted to North America when Great Britain declared war against France (King George’s War 1744-1748). Fighting primarily took place in the northern colonies and provinces with many French hostilities launched against the British colonies from Louisbourg the capital of the French province of Isle Royale (present day Cape Brenton). Tartar sailed in many expeditions in the North Atlantic at this time, including participating in the most significant battle of King George’s war, the Battle of Louisbourg in 1745.