USS Warren (1775)

History
United States
Name	Warren
Namesake	Dr. doctor and soldier killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill
Commissioned	Late October 1775
Captured	By the Royal Navy, 26 August 1776
Fate	Wrecked, late December 1776
Notes	Originally fishing vessel Hawk
General characteristics
Type	Schooner
Tonnage	64
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Schooner-rigged
Complement	50
Armament	4 × 4-pounder guns; 10 × swivel guns;

The first USS Warren was a schooner that served in the American Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1776. She was named for patriot Joseph Warren, who had been killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Warren was originally the

Captain

Winborn Adams, the armed schooner sailed from Beverly on 31 October 1775, on her maiden voyage under Continental colors.

Warren cruised north of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, and captured a small wooden schooner before bagging a Boston-bound supply ship, the schooner Rainbow, around 27 November 1775.

Warren continued to cruise north of Cape Ann until she came across the

casks of wine, Sally had been captured by the fifth-rate HMS Niger earlier in the month, placed under a prize crew, and ordered taken to Boston. Warren captured Sally and took her into Marblehead as a "Christmas

present" for General Washington.

After returning to port and undergoing repairs into January 1776, Warren was placed under the command of William Burke. She set sail from Boston on 25 March 1776 to intercept a

transports but was frustrated by the weather in her attempt to pick off any strays while sailing in company with the Continental 6-gun schooner Franklin

. The schooners then sailed their separate ways, with Warren going to the familiar waters north of Cape Ann.

After another rent and recruiting new crewmen, Warren joined schooners

Hessian troops embarked, but met with a hot reception from the troopers' carriage guns and musket fire. While Warren was disengaging, some powder stored on her quarterdeck

exploded, killing three and wounding seven.

Returning to Beverly for repairs, Warren, still under the luckless Burke, put to sea again in late August 1776 to patrol the supply lanes between Nova Scotia and Boston. Before dawn on 26 August 1776, Warren and Lynch encountered the British 28-gun frigate HMS Liverpool patrolling. The two schooners separated to flee, and Liverpool chose to follow Warren.

The ensuing engagement was one-sided, and Liverpool had little difficulty forcing Warren to strike her colors before noon. Burke and his crew were transferred to Liverpool, which kept Warren as a tender until 4 September 1776. On that day, Liverpool rendezvoused with Milford off Cape Ann, transferred Warren's guns to Milford, and sent Warren to Halifax.

Condemned by a British prize court, Warren subsequently served as a tender to Milford until Warren ran aground in a storm near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and was wrecked in late December 1776.^[1]

Citations

^ Silverstone, p. 14

References

Silverstone, Paul H. (2006). The Sailing Navy, 1775-1854. New York: Routledge.
ISBN 0-415-97872-6
.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

[1] Silverstone, p. 14

[1]

See also

Citations

References