USS Vixen ( 1803 ) 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 . Service life . First Barbary War . 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 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 . Between wars . " Vixen " was placed in ordinary at the Washington Navy Yard immediately upon her return from the Mediterranean . She left the yard one year later and subsequently operated along the Atlantic coast under Lieutenants James Lawrence and Charles Ludlow . On 18 June 1810 , " Vixen " came upon on the sloop off Barbados , which fired on her . Commander Henry Boys apologized to the Americans , reporting that he had been unable to make out her colours and that he thought she might be a French privateer that he was seeking . The Americans suffered one casualty , a man wounded in the mouth by a splinter . War of 1812 . " Vixen " continued patrolling the Atlantic coast until the outbreak of the War of 1812 , at which time she sailed along the southern coast under Master Commandant Christopher Gadsden , Jr . , and , after his death on 28 August 1812 , under Lt . George Washington Reed , youngest son of General Joseph Reed . During one of her war cruises among the West Indies , " Vixen " encountered the 32 - gun British frigate , under the command of Captain James Lucas Yeo . " Southampton " chased , intercepted , and captured " Vixen " on 22 November 1812 . Yeo described " Vixen " as a brig armed with twelve 18 - pounder carronade s and two 9 - pounder guns . She had a crew of 130 men and had been out five weeks but had not captured anything . Fate . Both vessels were wrecked five days later on Conception Island in the Bahamas , but the officers and crews all survived . Lt . Reed , however , died of yellow fever in Jamaica before he could be exchanged .