USS Porcupine (1813)

Career (US)
Name:	Porcupine
Builder:	Adam and Noah Brown
Commissioned:	Spring 1813
Decommissioned:	unknown
Struck:	1825
Fate:	Sold
General characteristics
Tons burthen:	60
Propulsion:	Sail
Complement:	25
Armament:	1 x 32-pounder 2 x 12-pounder

For other ships of the same name, see USS Porcupine.

USS Porcupine' was a gunboat schooner built by Adam and Noah Brown at Presque Isle, Pennsylvania and commissioned in the United States Navy during the War of 1812 as part of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s Lake Erie Fleet.

Under the command of Acting Master George Senat, she took part in the Battle of Lake Erie on 10 September 1813. She was subsequently utilized as a hospital ship for captured wounded seamen. While lying at anchor with USS Ohio and USS Somers at the head of the Niagara River 12 August 1814, she was attacked by six or eight boats manned by English seamen and Canadian militia. Ohio and Somers were captured, but Porcupine escaped.

Porcupine was then laid up at Erie Pennsylvania until 1819, when she was refitted and turned over to the Collector of Revenue at Detroit on 2 June. She returned to the Navy 2 August 1821, remaining inactive until sold 8 August 1825. Afterward she was used as a cargo vessel on the Great Lakes until 1873 when, being determined unseaworthy, she was beached on the sands of Spring Lake, near Grand Haven, Michigan.

References

• This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.