| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USSWarren |
| Builder | Sylvester Bowers |
| Launched | 1776 |
| Stricken | 1779 |
| Fate | Burned to prevent capture, August 1779 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Frigate |
| Length | 132 ft 1 in (40.26 m) |
| Beam | 34 ft 5 in (10.49 m) |
| Depth of hold | 11 ft (3.4 m) |
| Propulsion | Sail |
| Complement | 250 |
| Armament | • 12 × 18-pounder (5 kg) guns • 14 × 12-pounder (5 kg) guns • 8 × 9-pounder (2.7 kg) guns |
USSWarren was a 32-gunfrigate of theContinental Navy. She was one of thethirteen frigates authorized by theContinental Congress on 13 December 1775. With half her main armament being 18-pounders,Warren was more heavily armed than a typical 32-gun frigate of the period. She was named forJoseph Warren on 6 June 1776.Warren was burned to prevent capture in the ill-fatedPenobscot Expedition in 1779.
Built atProvidence, Rhode Island by Sylvester Bowers,Warren was probably one of the first two of the 13 frigates to be completed. The other was the Rhode Island-built frigateProvidence. However, difficulties in manning the two ships and the British occupation ofNewport, Rhode Island made the tricky task of getting the vessels out to sea doubly difficult.
Although the ship was bottled up in theProvidence River, CommodoreEsek Hopkins broke his pennant inWarren early in December of 1776. Hopkins was ordered to prepare for sea as soon as possible to cruise the upper half of the eastern seaboard to interdict British troop and logistics shipping traveling theRhode Island toVirginia route. Hopkins' flagship nevertheless remained anchored in theProvidence River for nearly a year afterward. As a result, Hopkins was suspended by the Marine Committee of the Continental Congress for his lethargic performance.Warren, blockaded inNarragansett Bay, did no cruising.
Aided by strong winds out of the north with masking snow,Warren, now under the command of Captain John B. Hopkins, finally slipped through the British blockade on 16 February 1778, taking minor damage fromHMSSomerset andHMSLark on her way out Narragansett Passage. Hopkins had orders to proceed to a free port, but the men were not dressed for the blizzard conditions so the captain headed to warmer southern waters and began hunting prizes on the open sea.Warren took two on her first cruise: within sightBermuda she took the shipNeptune, bound fromWhitehaven, England toPhiladelphia with a cargo of provisions, and also took thesnowRobert, heading forBristol fromSint Eustatius on false Dutch papers, carrying flaxseed andfustic. The Continental frigate put intoBoston on 23 March and prepared for another cruise to the West Indies but found manning the ship near-impossible. She finally conducted a second cruise off the eastern seaboard in the autumn, sailing for a time in company with theMassachusetts State Navy shipTyrannicide in September.
Warren remained at Boston into the winter of 1778 and apparently did not sortie again until 13 March 1779. The frigate under now-Commodore John B. Hopkins, departed in company withQueen of France andRanger for a cruise off the northeastern coast. The squadron took the armed schoonerHibernia as a prize on 6 April.
Good fortune smiled upon them even more the following day. At 04:00 American lookouts sighted two "fleets" of ships. One contained ten vessels and the other, nine.Warren and her two consorts set upon the nine-ship group to windward and, by 14:00, had captured seven of the nine. The British convoy had been bound fromNew York toGeorgia. The catch included two ships, four brigs, and a schooner. Most of the prizes were richly laden with provisions for the British Army.Warren towed the brigPatriot from 10 April, bringing her triumphantly into port.
Initially, Congress expressed great pleasure with Hopkins' exploit, but its satisfaction soon soured. The Marine Committee charged Hopkins with violating his orders, maintaining that he had returned to port too soon and had not sent his prizes to the nearest port. As a disciplinary measure, the Committee relieved Hopkins, suspended him from the Navy, and gave his command to CaptainDudley Saltonstall. The latter decision would have sad repercussions for both ship and her new commander.
WhileWarren lay at Boston, fitting out for further operations, the British established a base on the Bagaduce peninsula, near the present site ofCastine, Maine, in mid-June 1779. This British intrusion into the figurative back yard of the Massachusetts colony could not go unchallenged. Thus a large—but unfortunately uncoordinated—force was assembled in hope of evicting the newly established British. Saltonstall became the naval commander, inWarren, and was given 19 armed vessels and some 20 transports with which to project the Continental invasion.
On 19 July 1779, the American fleet sailed from Boston, bound forPenobscot Bay. The expedition turned out to be a dismal failure. First, the fleet was unfit for the work and was primarily composed of privateers. The military forces — as in the seagoing ones — lacked decisive leadership; and the land forces lacked artillery and necessary equipment and supplies. Cooperation between military and naval forces was entirely lacking, with the obvious end result that the entire expedition collapsed in disaster.
Warren and the other vessels of the American fleet were consequently burned to prevent their capture by the British.Warren was probably set afire by her crew on either 14 or 15 August 1779 in thePenobscot River, above the Bagaduce peninsula.
Later that autumn, Saltonstall was tried by court martial on board the frigateDeane in Boston harbor. He was summarily dismissed from theContinental Navy.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.