Barebush Key, near Port Royal. A court-martial, as is usual in such cases, being afterwards assembled to enquire into his conduct on that occasion, he was fully acquitted of all blame on account of the loss of his ship, and complimented for his exertions after she had struck.
Captain Warren’s next appointment was, in May 1809, to command the Melpomene frigate on the Baltic station, during the absence of her proper Captain, the late Sir Peter Parker. Whilst at anchor in the Belt, about a mile from the shore, during a perfect calm, and very dark night, the Melpomene was attacked by twenty large Danish gun^boats, whose crews attempted to board her, but without success: the action lasted from 10h 30' P.M. till day-light on the following morning, when the enemy retreated to the shore, leaving the British frigate with several men killed and wounded, and her hull and rigging much damaged. For his gallantry on this critical occasion he received the public thanks of the commander-in-chief, who attributed the safety of more than a hundred sail of merchant vessels, then about six miles distant from the Melpomene, to the exertions made by that ship.
The Melpomene was subsequently employed under the orders of Captain T. Byam Martin in the Gulf of Finland, where her boats assisted at the capture and destruction of several Russian gun-boats and a number of merchant vessels, some of which were laden with naval stores. She returned to England at the end of the year; and Sir Peter Parker having resumed his command, Captain Warren was immediately appointed to the Argo 44, in which ship he soon after sailed for St. Helena, and from thence convoyed home a large fleet of East Indiamen.
On the 28th Nov. 1810, the subject of this memoir was tried by a court-martial at Portsmouth, for not proceeding to Quebec, in compliance with orders from the Admiralty, to escort the trade from thence to England. The court, after hearing the evidence adduced on the part of the prosecution, as also what Captain Warren had to allege in his defence, agreed that the reasons assigned by him for his conduct (arising from the lateness of the season and the bad state of the weather) were perfectly satisfactory, and did therefore adjudge him to be acquitted.
