USS Vixen (1803)

The first USS "Vixen" was a schooner in the United States Navy during the First Barbary War.

"Vixen" was one of four vessels authorized by Congress on 28 February 1803. She was built at Baltimore, Maryland, in the spring of 1803; and launched on 25 June, Lieutenant John Smith in command.

ervice life

First Barbary War

Designed especially for operations in the shoal waters off the coast of Tripoli, "Vixen" joined Commodore Edward Preble's squadron for duty in the First Barbary War (1801–1805) immediately upon her commissioning. She sailed from Baltimore on 3 August 1803 and deployed with the squadron off Gibraltar on 14 September. Commodore Preble dispatched "Vixen" and the frigate USS|Philadelphia|1799|2 Tripoli in October to establish the blockade there. However, "Vixen" soon departed in search of two Tripolitan warships and was not present when "Philadelphia" grounded and was captured on the 31st. Instead, she carried the dispatches announcing the loss of the frigate and the imprisonment of Captain William Bainbridge, his officers, and crew back to Gibraltar in December.

Retribution for this latest action by the Tripoli pirates came swiftly and dramatically. Lt. Stephen Decatur, Jr., boarded and destroyed "Philadelphia" where she lay in Tripoli harbor on 16 February 1804, and Commodore Preble later followed this up with five heavy bombardments of the pirate state on the 3, 7, 24, and 29 August, and on 3 September. "Vixen" participated in all these actions, and performed tactical service by helping to coordinate the movements of the various American vessels. She was rerigged as a brig in September 1804, ostensibly to improve her sailing qualities, and was with the squadron, now under Commodore John Rodgers, in actions before Tunis in August 1805. The warship returned to the United States one year later in August 1806.

War of 1812

"Vixen" was placed in ordinary at the Washington Navy Yard immediately upon her return from the Mediterranean. She left the yard one year later and subsequently operated along the Atlantic coast under Lieutenants James Lawrence and Charles Ludlow. She continued this duty until the outbreak of the War of 1812, at which time she sailed along the southern coast under Master Commandant Christopher Gadsden, Jr., and, after his death on 28 August 1812, under Lt. George Washington Reed, youngest son of General Joseph Reed. During one of her war cruises among the West Indies, "Vixen" was chased, intercepted, and captured by the 32-gun British frigate HMS|Southampton|1757|2 on 22 November 1812. Both vessels were soon afterwards wrecked on Concepcion Island in the Bahamas, but the officers and crews all survived. Lt. Read, however, died of yellow fever in Jamaica before he could be exchanged.

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