USS Spitfire (1803)

The second ship to be so named by the Navy, Spitfire—a merchant sloop built in Connecticut in 1803—was purchased by the Navy at Boston, Massachusetts, on 25 April 1805; was commissioned the same day; and converted to a bomb ketch by the Boston Navy Yard. Commanded by Midshipman Daniel McNeill, Jr., Spitfire sailed for the Mediterranean on 23 June 1805 and reached Gibraltar on 1 August. The bomb ketch operated in the Mediterranean supporting American operations against the Barbary powers until sailing for home on 3 June 1806. She arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, on 19 July and was placed in ordinary at Norfolk, Virginia, on 3 August 1806.

The ship was reactivated in July 1807 under the command of Midshipman F. Cornelius de Kroff but remained at Norfolk until laid up again in December. On 1 May 1811, Spitfire was stopped by the fifth-rate HMS Guerriere off New Jersey's Sandy Hook. Guerriere impressed the apprentice sailing master of Spitfire, John Diggio, a citizen of Maine. This incident led to a confrontation fifteen days later between the frigates USS President and HMS Little Belt (mistaken for the Guerriere), as President attempted to recover Diggio. The ensuing Little Belt affair provoked a diplomatic furor between the United States and Great Britain. It contributed to the tense atmosphere between the two powers prior to the War of 1812. Spitfire was broken up at the Norfolk Navy Yard in 1820.

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