Lewis Warrington is the descendant of an old and respectable family in
Williamsburgh, near Norfolk, in Virginia, where he was born on the 3d
day of November, 1782. He finished the higher branches of his education
at William and Mary College in that state. The habits of study which
he acquired at that excellent institution, and the associations which
he formed, have never forsaken him, but have continued to mark his
character and augment his information, at intervals of leisure, amidst
the toils and tumults, the hardships and privations of a naval life.
In consequence of an unusually retentive memory, added to a strong
attachment to books, his mind is amply enriched with general knowledge.
Shortly after the completion of his studies at Williamsburgh, he
received an appointment in the navy as midshipman, and entered the
service in January, 1800. His first cruise was on board the Chesapeake,
commanded by Captain Samuel Barron, to the West Indies. In 1801 he was
removed to the frigate President, Captain Dale, on a cruise to the
Mediterranean, but returned the following year. During the same year he
returned again to the Mediterranean, as master’s mate in the frigate
New York, under the command of Captain James Barron.
At Gibraltar he was transferred to the frigate Chesapeake, then
on her return to the United States. In 1803 he again sailed in the
schooner Vixen, Captain John Smith, to join the American squadron in
the Mediterranean, where, actively participating in their exertions
and dangers, he was justly entitled to share the glory attendant on
the achievements of that band of heroes. Late in the year 1804 he was
promoted to the rank of acting lieutenant, and on the termination
of hostilities with the Tripolitans, was transferred, with Captain
Smith, to the brig Syren, and in the succeeding year to the schooner
Enterprise, Captain Porter, and returned to the United States in
1807. From that period until 1809 he was variously employed, always
intent on his own improvement in the science of his profession. In
March of that year he was appointed first lieutenant on board the brig
Syren, Captain Charles Gordon, and ordered to sail to France with
dispatches. In September, 1811, he was appointed first lieutenant in
the brig Essex, under Captain Smith, who not long after was appointed
to the command of the frigate Congress, and requested as a favor that
Lieutenant Warrington might be permitted to accompany him. The request
was complied with, and Warrington remained with his friend, Captain
Smith, until March, 1813, when he was transferred as first lieutenant
to the frigate United States, under the command of Commodore Decatur.
In July of the same year, at the particular request of Decatur, he
was promoted to the rank of master-commandant, and in the following
month was appointed to the command of the sloop-of-war Peacock, the
vessel in which his fortune conducted him to victory and to glory. The
following is an extract of an official letter from Captain Warrington
to the Secretary of the Navy, dated U. S. sloop Peacock, at sea, 29th
April, 1814. He says, “We have this morning captured, after an action
of forty-two minutes, his majesty’s brig Epervier, rating and mounting
eighteen thirty-two pound carronades, with one hundred and twenty-eight
men, of whom eight were killed and thirteen wounded. Among the latter
is her first lieutenant, who has lost an arm and received a severe
splinter wound on the hip. Not a man in the Peacock was killed, and
only two wounded; neither dangerously so. The fate of the Epervier
would have been determined in much less time, but for the circumstance
of our foreyard being totally disabled by two round shot in the
starboard quarter, from her first broadside, which entirely deprived
us of the use of our fore and fore-top sails, and compelled us to keep
the ship large throughout the remainder of the action. This, with a
few topmast and top-gallant backstays cut away, a few shot through
our sails, is the only injury the Peacock has sustained. Not a round
shot touched our hull; our masts and spars are as sound as ever. When
the enemy struck he had five feet water in his hold, his main-topmast
was over the side, his main-boom shot away, his fore-mast cut nearly
in two, and tottering; his fore-rigging and stays shot away, his
bowsprit badly wounded and forty-five shot holes in his hull, twenty
of which were within a foot of his water-line. By great exertion we
got her in sailing order just as the dark came on. In fifteen minutes
after the enemy struck, the Peacock was ready for another action, in
every respect but her foreyard, which was sent down, fished, and had
the foresail set again in forty-five minutes; such was the spirit and
activity of our gallant crew. The Epervier had under her convoy an
English brig, a Russian and a Spanish ship, which all hauled their
wind and stood to the E. N. E. I had determined upon pursuing the
former, but found that it would not answer to leave our prize in her
then crippled state, and the more particularly so, as we found she
had one hundred and twenty thousand dollars in specie, which we soon
transferred to the Peacock.
“I have the honor, &c.
“L. WARRINGTON.”
It is a fact, then, which no candid seaman will venture to deny, that,
taking into consideration the nature of the action, one hundred and
twenty-eight men--the complement of the Epervier when the conflict
commenced--were capable of defending her, and annoying their enemy with
as much effect as one hundred and forty-eight could have done--the
complement in full of the crew of the Peacock. The gallant Warrington,
therefore, achieved his victory with triumphant facility; not because
he had thirty men and _one_ fighting gun more than his enemy, but
because he was himself superior to the British captain in skill, and
his officers and crew superior to their opponents in firmness and
gunnery.
Congress ordered a gold medal (_see_ Plate XIII.) to be struck and
presented to “Captain Lewis Warrington, of Virginia, commander of the
sloop-of-war Peacock, for the capture of the British brig L’Epervier,
Captain Wales, April 29th, 1814.”