A former Royal Navy name retained. This vessel took her name from the 22-gun sloop-of-war, also Little Belt, that met and exchanged broadsides with American frigate President off Cape Henry at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay 16 May 1811. This incident did much to excite Anglo-American tensions, then high on the eve of the War of 1812.
Little Belt, a three-gun sloop, was built by the British in Canada in 1812 for service on the Great Lakes and joined Capt. James Barclay-s squadron on Lake Erie shortly thereafter.
On 12 September 1813, off Put-in-Bay, she was captured by schooners Scorpion and Chippeway of Capt. Oliver Hazard Perry's squadron during the famous Battle of Lake Erie. Following repairs, she was fitted for service in the U.S. Navy and joined Perry's squadron 23 October to help transport Gen. William Henry Harrison's army to Buffalo. Little Belt cruised Lake Erie through the latter part of 1813 in support of American troops fighting the British and Indians in western New York. During a violent lakewide squall 8 December 1813, the sloop was driven ashore at Black Rock, N.Y. All efforts to refloat her failed, and on 29 December she was discovered and burned by the British.
