Daniel Turner ( naval officer ) Daniel Turner ( 1794 ? probably Richmond , Staten Island – 4 February 1850 ) was an officer in the United States Navy . Naval career . Turner was appointed a midshipman in the Navy on 1 January 1808 . Following brief duty at the New York Naval Station , he served in " Constitution " on the North Atlantic Station . On 8 June 1812 , he received orders to Norwich , Connecticut , where he took command of the gunboat s located there . On 14 March 1813 , two days after receiving his commission as a lieutenant , Turner was sent to Sackett ' s Harbor , New York , located on the shores of Lake Erie . There , he took command of " Niagara " , a brig in Oliver Hazard Perry ' s squadron . However , just before the Battle of Lake Erie , he relinquished command to Captain Jesse D . Elliott and assumed command of " Caledonia " . The little brig played an important role in the battle on 10 September 1813 because , at one point in the action , her two 24 - pounder long guns were the only ones in Perry ' s flotilla capable of returning the distant fire of the three heaviest Royal Navy ships then in the process of pounding Perry ' s flagship " Lawrence " . For his part in the American victory at Lake Erie , Lt . Turner received the praise of Perry , a vote of thanks and a medal from Congress , and a sword from the state of New York . In the summer of 1814 , Turner succeeded to the command of schooner " Scorpion " , and he cruised Lakes Erie and Huron in her supporting army operations around Detroit and blockading British forces at the Nottawasaga River and Lake Simcoe . On 6 September 1814 , Turner and his command were captured by the British when he brought " Scorpion " alongside the former American schooner " Tigress " which , unbeknownst to him , had been captured a few days earlier . After a period of imprisonment at Fort Mackinac , Lt . Turner returned to the United States in exchange for a British prisoner of war . Between 1815 and 1817 , Turner cruised the Mediterranean in the frigate " Java " commanded by his old superior on the Great Lakes , Oliver Hazard Perry . During that deployment , " Java " visited Algiers and Tripoli in a show of American naval strength calculated to impress the Barbary pirates and intimidate them into honoring their treaties with the United States . In 1817 , " Java " returned to Newport , Rhode Island , to be laid up . Between 1819 and 1824 , Turner returned to sea in the schooner " Nonsuch " attached to a squadron commanded again by Oliver Hazard Perry . In addition to hunting West Indian pirates , his ship sailed up the Orinoco River to carry Perry on a diplomatic mission to the Venezuelan government under Simon Bolivar . During the return downriver , Perry and many of the crew contracted yellow fever . Turner was close at hand when his mentor died at Trinidad on 23 August 1819 . During the remaining years of Turner ' s assignment to " Nonsuch " , his ship worked along the east coast of the United States , patrolled in the West Indies to suppress piracy , and made a brief cruise to the Mediterranean in 1824 . Following shore duty at Boston , Massachusetts , Turner returned to sea in 1827 for a three - year assignment with the West India Squadron , as the commanding officer of " Erie " . In 1830 , he came ashore again for three years at the Portsmouth Navy Yard . Promoted to captain on 3 March 1835 , Turner spent a long period waiting orders before returning to sea in 1839 in command of USS " Constitution " . He sailed the Pacific Squadron in " Old Ironsides , " until he was relieved in 1841 . From 1843 to 1846 , he commanded the American squadron which operated along the Brazilian coast . From that duty , he reported ashore again as Commandant , Portsmouth Navy Yard . Capt . Turner died suddenly on 4 February 1850 at Philadelphia , Pennsylvania and he was buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore , Maryland . Namesakes . Ships in the United States Navy have been named USS " Turner " for him .