USS Tigress ( 1813 ) 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 . Service history . Battle of Lake Erie . 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 . Battle of the Thames . 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 " , and , 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 . Lake Huron . " Tigress " subsequently sailed for Lake Huron , where she took part in blockading operations into the summer of 1814 . She and " Scorpion " drew the task of standing watch over the entrance to the Nottawasaga River , the sole supply source for the British garrison on Mackinac Island . By early September , the situation in this town was desperate . If the blockade were not lifted within a fortnight , dwindling food supplies would force the British to surrender . To avert such a development , four boatloads of British and Indians set out from the island on the night of 3 September 1814 . Members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment , lead by Captain Andrew Bulger partook in the operation . They slipped alongside " Tigress " , which was anchored close inshore , and boarded the schooner . A brief and bloody battle followed and although " warmly received " by the vessel ' s crew , the British captured the ship in five minutes . " The defense of this vessel , " wrote Lieutenant Miller Worsley , in command of the attackers , " did credit to her officers , who were all severely wounded . " ( This included the vessel ' s commander , Sailing Master Stephen Champlin . ) While the surviving officers and men were sent ashore as prisoners of war , Worsley retained the greater part of the boarding party on board and kept the ship ' s American flag flying . " Scorpion " soon arrived on 6 September and anchored some two miles distant . Worsley , in a daring stroke , ran the captured " Tigress " alongside " Scorpion " and captured her , too . Both American vessels and their captured crews were later taken to Mackinac . Fate . The British renamed their prizes soon thereafter . " Tigress " became HMS " Surprise " , an appropriate name in view of the nature of her capture , and " Scorpion " became HMS " Confiance " . Both subsequently served the Royal Navy until the end of the war , when they were laid up and allowed to sink at their moorings , either at Penetanguishene or Fort Malden , Ontario . One of the wrecks retrieved from Penetanguishene Bay in 1933 may be the " Tigress " , but the identity of the badly decayed hulks is uncertain .