USS Viper (1806)
Configuration of typical brig-sloop
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS Viper |
| Builder: | Josiah Fox |
| Laid down: | date unknown |
| Christened: | originally as the cutter Ferret |
| Completed: | between 1806 and 1809 at the Norfolk Navy Yard |
| Commissioned: | 18 April 1809 as the USS Ferret |
| Captured: | 17 January 1813 by the 32-gun frigate HMS Narcissus |
 UK
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| Name: | HMS Mohawk |
| Acquired: | By capture 17 January 1813 |
| Honours and awards: |
Naval General Service Medal with clasp "28 April Boat Service 1813” |
| Fate: | Sold 1814 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Brig |
| Tonnage: | 148 bm |
| Displacement: | 143 tons |
| Length: | 73 ft 0 in (22.25 m) |
| Beam: | 23 ft 8 in (7.21 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) |
| Sail plan: | Brig |
| Complement: | 64 (American service) |
| Armament: |
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USS Viper – commissioned as USS Ferret – was a brig serving the United States Navy during the early days of the republic. Viper was assigned to enforce the Embargo Act of 1807 along the U.S. East Coast. During the War of 1812, while cruising in the Caribbean, she was captured by the more heavily armed British warships. She then served the Royal Navy as HMS Mohawk until she was sold in 1814. While in British service she served in several actions that earned her crew the Naval General Service Medal,
The first ship to be named Viper by the Navy, was originally the cutter Ferret. She was designed by the naval architect Josiah Fox and built at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Norfolk, Virginia, between 1806 and 1809, and was commissioned under her old name on 18 April 1809, Lieutenant Christopher Gadsden, Jr., in command.
Shortly after her commissioning, Ferret cruised along the coast of the Carolinas and Georgia to aid in the enforcement of the Embargo Act of 1807. She was renamed Viper during re-rigging as a brig at the Washington Navy Yard in 1809 and 1810, and from Washington sailed to New Orleans, Louisiana, arriving there on 18 March 1811. Viper remained off the U.S. Gulf Coast enforcing the Embargo Act until the outbreak of the War of 1812.
During the war, Viper proved woefully inadequate in deep water operations against the larger, more heavily gunned British warships. On 17 January 1813 the 32-gun frigate HMS Narcissus captured Viper off the coast of Belize, British Honduras and took her to New Providence in the Bahama Islands. At the time of her capture Viper was armed with 12 guns, had a crew of 93 men and had been cruising for seven weeks off Havana, having made no captures.
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Wikipedia