Tigress took part in the Battle of Lake Erie at Put-in-Bay, Ohio on 10 September 1813, being one of several gunboats which caused heavy damage to HMS Detroit, the flagship of Commander Robert Heriot Barclay, and other British ships.

On 2 October, a small naval flotilla, consisting of Tigress, Scorpion and Porcupine, under the command of Lieutenant Jesse Elliott, ascended the Thames River to support an overland expedition under General William Henry Harrison.

She and Scorpion drew the task of standing watch over the entrance to the Nottawasaga River, the sole supply source for the British garrison on Mackinac Island.

To break the blockade, four boatloads of British soldiers, sailors and Indigenous warriors set out from Mackinac Island on the night of 3 September 1814.

"The defense of this vessel," wrote Lieutenant Miller Worsley, in command of the attackers, "did credit to her officers, who were all severely wounded."