HMS Cockchafer was a United States schooner, formerly named Spencer, that the Royal Navy (RN) captured and employed as a ship's tender.

One source describes her as the United States' letter of marque Spence, launched in 1811 that HMS Maidstone captured on 3 August 1812.

There was a United States' letter of marque named Spencer, a schooner of 169 tons (bm), but she was recommissioned in October 1813, and there is no record of her having ever been captured.

[1] On 11 July 1813, a squadron under the command of Rear-Admiral George Cockburn in Sceptre, and comprising Romulus, Fox, Nemesis, and Conflict, and the tenders Cockchafer and Highflyer, anchored off Ocracoke Island, on the North Carolina coast.

[5] Cockchafer was among the vessels that captured vegetables and provisions on the Chesapeake on 23 October 1813, 15 November, and 27 December, for which prize money was paid.

[6][a] Cockchafer, Lieutenant Charles Blood, was among the vessels that shared in the prize money for the brig Regulator, Wright, master, captured on 22 November 1813.

They were carrying British Agent Woodbine (an honorary captain in the Corps of Colonial Marines) and supplies to Britain's Creek, Chocktaw, and other allies there.

[13] Cockchafer then carried despatches for the Commander-in-Chief in the Chesapeake, and on her arrival there she was ordered up the Potomac to assist the British in their descent of that river, after the capture of Alexandria.

Cockchafer returned New Providence, convoying a brig carrying government stores and presents for the Indian chiefs.