Royal Naval Biography/Warren, John Talbot

2403480Royal Naval Biography — Warren, John TalbotJohn Marshall


JOHN TALBOT WARREN, Esq.
[Commander.]

Entered the royal navy in Jan. 1806; and served for nearly four years as midshipman, under Captain Samuel Jackson, in the Mosquito sloop, and Superb 74, on the Downs, Baltic, Channel, and North Sea stations. The Mosquito, after being several times engaged with the Boulogne and Calais flotillas, was attached to the Copenhagen expedition. In the Superb, bearing the flag of the late Sir Richard G. Keats, Mr. Warren witnessed the rescue of the Spanish army under De la Romana, Aug. 11th, 1808[1]; and was present at the reduction of Walcheren, in Aug. 1809. He subsequently joined the Desiree frigate. Captain (now Sir Arthur) Farquhar, employed in blockading the Texel; on which station he assisted in cutting out a French lugger of twelve guns and forty-two men, a schuyt privateer of four guns, a Dutch gun-vessel, and a small row boat; likewise in destroying a French lugger of six guns. May 29th, 1810[2].

On the 10th Mar. 1811, the Desirée captured the French cutter privateer Velocifere, of fourteen guns and fifty-seven men; and on the 12th Dec. following, her boats, in one of which Mr. Warren was then serving, boarded and carried le Brave, of fourteen guns and sixty men, near the island of Schelling[3]. Between this period and the end of 1812, they appear to have taken and destroyed several other armed vessels.

In 1813, we find Mr. Warren accompanying Captain Jackson, in the Lacedemonian frigate, to North America, where he assisted at the capture and destruction of seventy-five vessels, and property valued at more than half a million sterling[4]. Since the peace he has served in the Diamond frigate, Ganges 84, Victory 104, and Winchester 52. He obtained his first commission on the 17th Feb. 1815 ; and was made a commander (after twice acting as such in the West Indies) Mar. 1st, 1833.