The first USS Porpoise was a topsail schooner in the United States Navy. Porpoise was built in 1820 at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine. The schooners Alligator, Dolphin, and Shark were her sister ships. She first cruised in the West Indies in 1821–1823, Lieutenant James Ramage in command, hunting pirates. Cruising the West African coast in 1824–25, the schooner engaged in the suppression of the slave trade. Late in 1825 she returned to the United States and, under Commander Foxhall A. Parker, cruised off the Northeast coast.