USS Vixen (1803)
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Artist's rendering of Vixen rigged as a brig
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS Vixen |
| Ordered: | 28 February 1803 |
| Builder: | William Price |
| Cost: | $20,872 |
| Laid down: | 1803 |
| Launched: | 25 June 1803 |
| Commissioned: | 3 August 1803 |
| Fate: | Captured by the British, 22 November 1812, and wrecked 27 November |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Schooner |
| Displacement: | 170 long tons (170 t) |
| Length: | 83 ft 6 in (25.45 m) |
| Beam: | 23 ft 2 in (7.06 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Complement: | 111 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: |
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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.
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 Philadelphia in October to establish a blockade of Tripoli. 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.
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