USS Warren (1799) - Epidemic

Epidemic

Warren operated locally between Havana and Matanzas until mid-June 1800 and anchored in Havana harbor on the 15 June 1800. On 24 June 1800, the ship's doctor sent Quarter Gunner William Dogget ashore to the hospital at Havana, the man suffering from a fever -- later determined to be yellow fever. Ominously, Dogget's case signified only the beginning of what would become a terrible ordeal for the sloop-of-war Warren.

During Warren's stay at Havana, her crew — hitherto "in general, healthy, and robust" — began to have "evident symptoms of an increasing universal debility." Warren, departing Havana in company with the frigate USS General Greene and 12 merchantmen, sailed for Veracruz, Mexico, on 26 June 1800.

Gunner Dogget, convalescent in the hospital at Havana, was spared seeing the agony of many of his shipmates. For the remainder of June 1800, an average of 15 men per day were incapacitated for performing ship's work. The first fatality occurred shortly before dawn on 30 June 1800, when young Midshipman Jonathan Greenleaf died. Nineteen men, recorded Whitmore, who survived the yellow fever epidemic, were then down with "the fever."

Thirteen more, including the doctor's mate, died before Warren reached Veracruz on 13 July 1800. Warren sent 20 men ashore there, but four died in the ensuing days. Warren ultimately departed Veracruz on 23 July 1800, having had an average of 20 to 24 sick men ashore in the hospital and 25 on board unfit for duty. Whitmore noted on 25 July 1800 that two dozen men were sick but noted optimistically that there were "many mending."

Warren headed back to Havana. Two men died on 27 July 1800, three on the 28 July 1800, and one on 1 August 1800. On 2 August 1800 at 10:00 hours, the captain's only son, John Newman, along on the voyage as a midshipman, died. Warren subsequently anchored at Havana on 15 August 1800, dropping her hook at 11:00 hours. Four hours later, Master Commandant Newman succumbed to the illness that had decimated his crew and killed his only son, when he, too, died. His remains were accordingly sent ashore and interred at Havana. Lieutenant Joseph Strout then took command and, soon thereafter, took the ship northward, bound for the United States.

Meanwhile, as Warren sailed homeward, Secretary of the Navy Stoddert ordered Captain James Barron to take command of the ship as soon as possible after she arrived, with expressed instructions to "relieve the sick; recruit men to fill the deficiency; cleanse, reprovision, rewater, and prepare her for another cruise with the most dispatch." Stoddert later instructed Barron to provide "all the protection in your power to the vessels which sail under your convoy, and see that as many as may be practicable to their destined ports."