A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Warren, John Talbot
WARREN. (Commander, 1833. f-p., 20; h-p., 22.)
John Talbot Warren was born, 28 Nov. 1792, in Dublin.
This officer entered the Navy, 25 Dec. 1805, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Mosquito 18, Capts. Sam. Jackson and Taylor; in which vessel and her boats we find him, until 1807, in constant action with the enemy’s flotilla and batteries in the neighbourhood of Calais and Boulogne. In the summer of the latter year, having attained the rating of Midshipman, he accompanied in that capacity the expedition against Copenhagen; during the operations connected with which the Mosquito was stationed in the Belt to prevent supplies being thrown into the island of Zealand. Rejoining Capt. Jackson in Jan. 1808, on board the Superb 74, he proceeded soon afterwards to the Mediterranean in pursuit of a French squadron which had effected its escape from Rochefort; and on his return he sailed with the flag of Rear-Admiral Rich. Goodwin Keats for the Baltic. While there he took part in numerous skirmishes with the enemy’s gun-boats, and assisted in embarking from Nyeborg the Spanish troops under the Marquis de la Romana, who had thrown off the yoke of France. Prior to the latter affair he had been employed with other Midshipmen in landing and bringing off a Spanish officer of rank sent from England to communicate with the patriot General; and had aided in the boats at the capture, with loss to the British, of a Danish brig and cutter, the Fama of 18 and Salorman of 12 guns. While at Gottenborg, in Jan. 1809, the Superb and other ships were frozen up; but by the sole exertions of the crew belonging to the former a passage was cut through three or four miles of ice, and the whole were warped out in safety. Having returned with a convoy of more than 200 sail to England, the Superb, in Aug. 1809, was ordered to join the expedition to the Scheldt; where it appears Mr. Warren shared, in a flat-bottomed boat, in all the operations that took place. On the Superb being paid off, he was received; in Nov. 1809, on board the Désirée 36, Capt. Arthur Farquhar; and in her he was for nearly three years employed off the Texel, the latter part of the time as Master’s Mate. In the boats of the Désirée, accompanied by those of the Quebec 32, Britomart sloop, and Bold gun-brig, all commanded by Lieut. Sam. Radford, he united in an attack made, on the night of 29 May, 1810, on several vessels lying in the Vlie. One of these, a French lugger of 6 guns and 26 men, was driven on shore and burnt, and four (a French lugger of 12 guns and 42 men, a schuyt privateer of 4 guns and 17 men, a Dutch gun-boat, and a small row-boat) were captured and brought out. On 10 March, 1811, the Désirée made prize of the Vélocifère a cutter-privateer of 14 guns and 57 men; and on 12 Dec. following her boats, in one of which was Mr. Warren, boarded and took, again under Lieut. Radford, Le Brave privateer of 14 guns (pierced for 16) and 60 men, near the island of Schelling. Between this period and Sept. 1812, at which period he left the Désirée, Mr. Warren was a participator in other performances of a character similar to those we have here noted. In Jan. 1813 he was again, in the Lacedemonian 38, placed under the command of his former Captain, Jackson, under whom he cruized at first off Cherbourg and saw afterwards much service in the Chesapeake and on other parts of the coast of North America; where he contributed to the capture and destruction of as many as 75 vessels and of property valued at half a million sterling, and was in the boats at the taking of Cumberland Island and the town of St. Mary’s. Among the vessels which he assisted in the boats in capturing, was one carrying a long 32-pounder on a pivot, 2 carronades, and 70 men. We may add that he was at Bermuda in the memorable hurricane of Aug. 1813. After he had acted for nearly four months as a Lieutenant of the Lacedemonian, he was presented, in May, 1815, with a commission bearing date 17 Feb. preceding. His subsequent appointments Here – 6 May, 1824, to the Diamond 46, Capt. Lord Napier, in which frigate he escorted Mr. Morier as Ambassador to Mexico – 11 May, 1825, for a few months, to the Ganges 84, Capt. Patrick Campbell, lying at Portsmouth – 1 Jan. 1827, to the Victory 104, flag-ship at the latter place of Hon. Sir Robt. Stopford – and 3 Oct. 1829, as First-Lieutenant, to the Winchester 52, fitting for the flag of Sir Edw. Griffith Colpoys, Commander-in-Chief on the North America and West India station. In Dec. 1830 he was nominated Acting-Commander of the Falcon 10, and was sent to the coast of Columbia for the purpose of affording protection to the interests of the British merchants. On rejoining the flag he was superseded, early in 1831, by the officer first on the Admiralty list for promotion; but on 29 March, 1832, he was again ordered to act as Commander in the Rose 18; in which vessel, after having visited Mexico, he arrived in the following Aug. at Sheerness. So well pleased was the Commander-in-Chief at that port, Sir John Poo Beresford, with the manner in which the Rose was paid off, that he wrote a strong letter to the Admiralty in favour of Mr. Warren, who was advanced by their lordships to the rank of Commander 1 March, 1833. His last appointment was to the Coast Guard; in which service he was employed as an Inspecting Commander from 24 June, 1836, until the summer of 1839.