USS Syren ( 1803 ) USS " Syren " ( later " Siren " ) was a brig of the United States Navy during the First Barbary War and the War of 1812 until being captured by the Royal Navy in 1814 . " Syren " was built for the Navy in 1803 at Philadelphia by shipwright Nathaniel Hutton and launched on 6 August 1803 . She was commissioned in September and Lieutenant Charles Stewart was appointed in command . Service history . First Barbary War . The brig departed Philadelphia on 27 August 1803 and reached Gibraltar on 1 October . A fortnight later , she sailed via Livorno to Algiers carrying presents and money to the Dey of Algiers . She then sailed to Syracuse , Sicily , where she arrived early in January 1804 . The first action the " Syren " was involved in was an attack with the intention of destroying the ' , a frigate which had run aground and had been captured by Tripolitan gunboats the previous autumn . To prevent the " Philadelphia " from opposing his planned operations against Tripoli , the commander of the American squadron in the Mediterranean , Commodore Edward Preble , decided to destroy her . To achieve this , the " Syren " and ketch ' sailed from Syracuse on 3 February 1804 and proceeded to Tripoli which they reached on the 7th . However , before the American ships could launch their attack , they were driven off by a violent gale and did not get back off Tripoli until the 16th . Before the attack the Syren tied up alongside the Intrepid to transfer some of her crew for the assault on the Philadelphia . Aboard the Intrepid , under the command of Stephen Decatur sailors from both the " Intrepid " and " Syren " succeeded in burning the " Philadelphia " . Also present during the assault was Thomas Macdonough of the Syren . " Syren " returned to Syracuse on the morning of 19 February . On 9 March , she and " " sailed for Tripoli . Soon after their arrival , " Syren " captured a polacca called " Madona Catapolcana " and sent her to Malta . Toward the end of the month , she captured the armed brig " Transfer " belonging to the Pasha . Stewart renamed " Transfer " , and she served in the American squadron . Operations in the Mediterranean during the spring and summer of 1804 and participated in the attacks on Tripoli in August and September 1804 . The ship continued to support the squadron ' s operation against Tripoli which forced the Pasha to accede to American demands . After a peace treaty with Tripoli was signed on 10 June 1805 , the brig remained in the Mediterranean for almost a year helping to establish and maintain satisfactory relations with other Barbary states . The ship returned to America in May 1806 and reached the Washington Navy Yard in August . She was laid up in ordinary there until recommissioned in 1807 and subsequently carried dispatches to France in 1809 . The following year , her name was changed to " Siren " . War of 1812 . Little record has been found of the brig ' s service during the War of 1812 , however small news items appeared in the Salem Gazette and the Boston Gazette . In May 1813 it was reported that within the space of two days a merchant vessel , the " Pilgrim " , was boarded , first by which was searching for the " Syren " and then by the " Syren " , which was searching for the " Herald " . The " Syren " was now commanded by Lieutenant Joseph Bainbridge . The following month The " Syren " left Belize and proceeded to Cuba where after three weeks searching for an Royal Navy sloop , probably the " Herald " she sailed for the coast of Florida putting in at New Orleans before departing on 9 May 1813 . No prizes were taken during this voyage and the ship needed repairs . By January 1814 the " Syren " was in Massachusetts and was now commanded by Lieutenant Parker , In February she sailed along with a privateer the " Grand Turk " . Not long after sailing Parker died and command transferred to Lieutenant N . J . Nicholson . On 12 July 1814 the " Syren " encountered the British ship a 74 gun third rate ship of the line under the command of Captain Augustus Brine . Heavily outgunned , the " Syren " attempted to run . After an 11 hour chase " Medway " captured her despite " Syren " having lightening her load by throwing overboard her guns , anchors and boats . During her last voyage she had captured or sunk several British merchantmen . Among the prisoners was Samuel Leech , who later wrote an account of his experiences . According to Samuel Leech , after being captured the crew of the Syren were taken to the Cape of Good Hope , and after landing at Simonstown , marched to a jail in Cape Town . Here they were held until transferred to England when the war was over . On arriving at Simonstown , other American prisoners were seen to be leaving the jail and being shipped off to Dartmoor . The Syren crew met these again in England while waiting for transfer to America . Some had been present at ' The Massacre ' .