USS Syren (1803)
 A typical brig sail plan |
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
|
|
| Name: | USS Syren |
| Builder: | Nathaniel Hutton |
| Cost: | $32,522 |
| Laid down: | 1803 |
| Launched: | 6 August 1803 |
| Commissioned: | 1 September 1803 |
| Renamed: | Siren, 1809 |
| Fate: | Captured at sea, 12 July 1814 |
| History | |
 United Kingdom
|
|
| Name: | Siren |
| Acquired: | 12 July 1814 by capture |
| Commissioned: | Not commissioned |
| Fate: | Not listed after 1815 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Brig |
| Displacement: | 240 long tons (244 t) |
| Tons burthen: | 298 (bm) |
| Length: | 94 ft 3 1⁄2 in (28.7 m) (overall); c,75 ft 0 in (22.9 m) |
| Beam: | 27 ft 0 in (8.23 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Complement: | 120 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: | 16 × 24-pounder carronades |
USS Syren (later Siren) was a brig of the United States Navy during the First Barbary War and the War of 1812 until the Royal Navy captured her in 1814. The British never commissioned her but apparently used her for a year or so as a lazaretto. She then disappears from records.
Syren was built for the Navy in 1803 at Philadelphia by shipwright Nathaniel Hutton and launched on 6 August 1803. She was commissioned in September and Lieutenant Charles Stewart was appointed in command.
The brig departed Philadelphia on 27 August 1803 and reached Gibraltar on 1 October. A fortnight later, she sailed via Livorno to Algiers carrying presents and money to the Dey of Algiers. She then sailed to Syracuse, Sicily, where she arrived early in January 1804.
The first action Syren was involved in was an attack with the intention of destroying USS Philadelphia, a frigate which had run aground and had been captured by Tripolitan gunboats the previous autumn. To prevent Philadelphia from opposing his planned operations against Tripoli, the commander of the American squadron in the Mediterranean, Commodore Edward Preble, decided to destroy her. To achieve this, Syren and ketch Intrepid sailed from Syracuse on 3 February 1804 and proceeded to Tripoli which they reached on 7 February. However, before the American ships could launch their attack, they were driven off by a violent gale and did not get back off Tripoli until 16 February. Before the attack Syren tied up alongside Intrepid to transfer some of her crew for the assault on Philadelphia. Aboard Intrepid, under the command of Stephen Decatur sailors from both Intrepid and Syren succeeded in burning Philadelphia. Also present during the assault was Thomas Macdonough of Syren.
...
Wikipedia