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The USS Syren (later Siren) was a brig in the United States Navy during the First Barbary War and the War of 1812.

Syren was built for the Navy in 1803 at Philadelphia by Nathaniel Hutton and launched on 6 August 1803. She was commissioned some time later in the month of September, Lieutenant Charles Stewart in command.

The brig departed Philadelphia on 27 August 1803 and reached Gibraltar on 1 October. A fortnight later, she sailed via Leghorn to AlgiersAlgiers (Fr. Alger Arab. El-Jezair i. The Islands), is the capital and largest city of Algeria, North Africa. It is situated on the west side of a bay of the Mediterranean Sea, to which it gives its name, in 36 deg. and is built on the slopes of the Sahel carrying presents and money to the Dey of Algiers. She then sailed to SyracuseMediterranean Sea, showing location of Syracuse on the island of Sicily. Map also shows Italy, Tunisia, and the islands Sardinia and Corsica. Syracuse Siracusa in Italian) is a city on the eastern coast of Sicily, Italy. Syracuse was founded in 734 BC by where she arrived early in January 1804Events January 1 End of French rule in Haiti June 15 The Twelfth Amendment to the U. Constitution ratified by New Hampshire, and arguably becomes effective (subsequently vetoed by the Governor of New Hampshire) July 27 The Twelfth Amendment to the U..

Meanwhile, the previous autumn, American frigateSailing frigates were 4th, 5th, or 6th-rated ships in the rating system of the Royal Navy. In modern military terminology, a frigate is a warship intended to protect other warships and merchant marine ships and as anti-submarine warfare (ASW) combatants f Philadelphia had run aground off Tripoli and had been captured by Tripolitan gunboats. To prevent the frigate 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 end, Syren and ketch Intrepid got underway 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, when sailors from the Intrepid succeeded in burning the Philadelphia.

Syren returned to Syracuse on the morning of 19 February. On 9 March, she and Nautilus 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 cast off and captured the armed brig Transfer belonging to the Pasha. Stewart named her Scourge , and she served the American squadron under that name.

Syren cruised in the Mediterranean during the spring and summer of 1804 and participated in the attacks on Tripoli in August and September 1804.

Syren continued to support the squadron's operation against Tripoli which forced the Pasha to accede to American demands. After a treaty of peace 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.

Syren departed Gibraltar on 28 May 1806 and reached the Washington Navy Yard on or about 1 August. She was laid up in ordinary there until reactivated in 1807, and carried dispatches to France in 1809. The following year, her name was changed to Siren (see also USS Siren ).

Little record has been found of the brig's service during the War of 1812, but we do know that she was captured at sea by the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Medway on 12 July 1814 after an 11-hour chase during which Siren jettisoned her guns, anchors, cables, boats, and spare spars in a valiant but futile effort to escape from the British vessel. Among the prisoners was Samuel Leech, who later wrote an account of his experiences.

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.