CAPTAIN LEWIS WARRINGTON.
[Capture of the Épervier.]
LUDOVICUS WARRINGTON DUX NAVALIS AMERI. (Americanus) (Lewis Warrington, American naval commander.) Bust of Captain Warrington, in uniform, facing the right. furst. f. (fecit).
PRO PATRIA PARATUS AUT VINCERE AUT MORI. (Prepared to conquer or die for his country.) Naval action between the United States sloop-of-war Peacock, of eighteen guns, Captain Warrington, and the British brig-of-war Épervier, of eighteen guns, Captain Wales; the Peacock, to leeward, is firing her port broadside. The Épervier has lost her main-topmast Exergue: INTER PEACOCK NAV. AMERI ET EPERVIE (sic) NAV. ANG. DIE XXIX MAR. MDCCCXIV. (Inter Peacock navem Americanam et Épervier navem Anglicanam, die 29 Martii, 1814: Between the American vessel Peacock and the English vessel Épervier, March 29, 1814.) furst. f. (fecit).
Lewis Warrington was born in Williamsburgh, Virginia, November 3, 1782. He entered the navy as a midshipman in 1800, and served under Commodore Preble in the Tripolitan campaign; was lieutenant, 1807; and master-commandant, 1813. He sailed from New York in March, 1814, in command of the sloop-of-war Peacock, and on the 29th of the same month took the British brig-of-war Épervier, Captain Wales, for which gallant deed he received the thanks of Congress and a gold medal. He was promoted to the rank of captain in November of the same year, and subsequently served on the Naval Board. In 1842 he became chief of the ordnance and hydrographic bureau of the Navy Department, in which capacity he died in Washington, October 12, 1851.