USS Tigress (1813)

History
United States
Name:	USS Tigress
Builder:	Adam and Noah Brown, Erie, Pennsylvania
Launched:	1813
Commissioned:	1813
Fate:	Captured by the British, 3 September 1814
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Surprise
Fate:	Sunk at her moorings
General characteristics
Type:	Schooner
Tonnage:	52 long tons (53 t)
Length:	50 ft (15 m) p/p
Beam:	17 ft (5.2 m)
Depth of hold:	5 ft (1.5 m)
Complement:	27
Armament:	1 × 32-pounder gun

USS Tigress was a schooner of the United States Navy which took part in the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813. In September 1814, the schooner was captured by the British and subsequently served in the Royal Navy as HMS Surprise.

Built at Erie, Pennsylvania, by Adam and Noah Brown, as the schooner Amelia. She was launched in the spring of 1813, probably in April. The ship was then acquired by the Navy for service with Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry's forces on Lake Erie, it was renamed Tigress and was placed under the command of Lt. Augustus H. M. Conkling.

The Tigress took part in the Battle of Lake Erie at Put-in-Bay, Ohio on 10 September 1813, being one of several gunboats which caused heavy damage to HMS Detroit, the flagship of Commander Robert Heriot Barclay, and other British ships.

Perry consequently convoyed American troops into the territory formerly held by the British, investing Malden on 23 September and Detroit (which the British had captured in 1812) four days later. On 2 October, a small naval flotilla, consisting of Tigress, Scorpion and Porcupine, under the command of Lieutenant Jesse Elliott, ascended the Thames River to support an overland expedition under General William Henry Harrison. In the ensuing Battle of the Thames, Harrison's army routed the mixed British and Indian force. The Indian leader Tecumseh was killed in the battle.

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