Little Belt Affair

Part of the events leading to the War of 1812

A 16 May 1811 engraving shows USS President battling HMS Little Belt

Date	16 May 1811
Location	off North Carolina, Atlantic Ocean
Result	American victory

Belligerents

Commanders and leaders

Strength

Casualties and losses

1 sloop-of-war heavily damaged
11 killed
21 wounded

1 frigate slightly damaged
1 wounded

The Little Belt Affair was a naval battle on the night of 16 May 1811. It involved the United States frigate USS President and the British sixth-rate HMS Little Belt, a sloop-of-war, which had originally been the Danish ship Lillebælt, before being captured by the British in the 1807 Battle of Copenhagen. The encounter took place off the North Carolina coast. The Little Belt Affair was one of many incidents and events that led to the War of 1812.

The Little Belt Affair occurred four years after the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair of 1807, in which HMS Leopard had attacked USS Chesapeake, killing three, wounding eighteen, and putting four of her sailors on trial for desertion. It was fifteen days after an incident involving HMS Guerriere, a frigate. On 1 May Guerriere had stopped the brig USS Spitfire off Sandy Hook in New Jersey and had impressed Maine citizen John Diggio, the apprentice sailing master of Spitfire. Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton had ordered President, along with USS Argus, to patrol the coastal areas from the Carolinas to New York.