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Career
Built:	1799
Purchased:	May 1803
Commissioned:	24 June 1803
Decommissioned:
Fate:	Captured
Struck:
General characteristics
Displacement:	185 tons
Length:	87 ft 6 in (26.7 m)
Beam:	23 ft 8 in (7.2 m)
Draft:
Propulsion:	Sail
Speed:
Range:
Complement:	103 officers and enlisted
Armament:	12 × 6 pdr (2.7 kg) carronades

Nautilus was a schooner launched in 1799 and purchased by the United States Navy in 1803 as USS Nautilus, the first ship to bear that name. She served in the First Barbary War. She was altered to a brigantine. The Nautilus was captured by the British during the War of 1812.

Nautilus was built in 1799 as a merchant vessel by Henry Spencer on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She was purchased by the Navy in May 1803, at Baltimore, Maryland, from Thomas Tennant; and commissioned 24 June 1803, Lieutenant Richard Somers in command.

Nautilus sailed to Hampton Roads, whence she got underway on 30 June for the Mediterranean, carrying dispatches for the U.S. Mediterranean Squadron stationed there assigned to protect the interests of the United States and its citizens residing or trading in that area, and threatened at that time by the Barbary States.

Nautilus arrived at Gibraltar 27 July and departed again on the 31st to deliver dispatches to Captain John Rodgers in John Adams, then returned to Gibraltar to await the arrival of Commodore Edward Preble, in Constitution, and join his squadron. Constitution arrived at Gibraltar 12 September, and after provisioning, the squadron, less Philadelphia, sailed 6 October with vessels of Capt. Rodgers’s squadron to Tangier. This display of naval strength induced the Emperor of Morocco to renew the treaty of 1786.

On 31 October 1803, the Tripolitans captured Philadelphia and the squadron’s interests were focused on Tripoli and Tunis. Using Syracuse as their rendezvous point, the vessels appeared off Tunis and Tripoli at different times between November 1803, and May 1804. In February 1804, as Lt. Stephen Decatur daringly sailed Intrepid into Tripoli harbor and burned the captured Philadelphia, Nautilus cruised off Tunis.

Toward the end of the month Nautilus retired to Syracuse, returning to Tripoli in mid-March. During May and June she repaired at Messina. Departing 5 July, she joined Constitution off Tripoli on the 25th. During August and early September, she took part in the siege of Tripoli and saw action in five general attacks between 3 August and 3 September. For the next five months, she continued to cruise off Tripoli and Tunis, retiring periodically to Syracuse and Malta, whence in February 1805, she sailed to Livorno to acquire a new mainmast.

On 27 April 1805, with Oliver Hazard Perry in command, she arrived off Derne to participate in the attack, capture, and occupation of that town. She remained until 17 May, during which time she provided cover for the forces of Hamet Caramanli, former Bashaw of Tripoli, as they went into action against the army of Hamet’s brother Yusuf ibn Ali Karamanli, who had overthrown Hamet and assumed his title. Departing on the 17th, Nautilus retired to Malta with dispatches and casualties. At the end of the month, she returned to Tripoli and on 10 June hostilities ceased with the signing of a peace treaty.

Nautilus remained in the Mediterranean for a year after the treaty went into effect, conducting operations from Malta and Gibraltar. In the spring of 1806 she was assigned to Algiers for dispatch duty, sailing in June for the United States. Arriving at Washington, D.C., in mid-July, she entered the Washington Navy Yard there and was placed in ordinary. Reactivated in 1808, she was employed on the East Coast until entering the Navy Yard again in 1810. Then altered to a brig, with a battery of twelve 18 pounder (8 kg) carronades, she recommissioned in 1811 and joined the squadron commanded by Stephen Decatur.

The following year, the War of 1812 with Britain broke out and on 17 July 1812, Nautilus gained the dubious distinction of being the first vessel lost on either side. Captured off northern New Jersey by a squadron built around HMS Shannon (38 guns), HMS Africa (64 guns), and HMS Aeolus (32 guns), the brig was taken into possession for the use of the King’s service.

See USS Nautilus and ships named Nautilus for other ships named Nautilus.

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