The Wikipedia entry for the USS Peacock says that it was, “involved in the Battle of Lake Maracaibo and Mr. Peter Storms decided to join the Independentist cause”. Anyone have information about the sloop’s role in this confrontation? I can’t find anything online. Not even who Storms was.
I hate to sound paranoid, but perhaps Venezuelans (including but not limited to the present Chavez regime/administration – Bolivarian revolution and all that) don’t like the idea that a U.S. ship helped in the last and/or decisive battle for Venezuelan independence, so references to the USS Peacock as a participant in the battle are down-played.
Or maybe the Peacock didn’t play a significant role in the battle, so that the only aspect worth mentioning is that a U.S. Navy vessel participated at all. 
Storms is mentioned in an older version of the article as “Master Commandant” of the Peacock, but this is poorly cited. On page 210 of Jane Lucas DeGrummond’s book on Renato Beluche, Storms and the Peacock appear to have arrived at Maracaibo carrying supplies for the republican fleet, but her dangling modifier makes it impossible to tell what’s she’s talking about. Also, she calls the Peacock a schooner. The sole source for the Wikipedia quote in the PO is apparently a mostly defunct website called chegauco.org.
Thanks for the responses. I did more digging and turned up some information. This Peter Storms may have been in the US Navy at some point but he certainly wasn’t in command of the USS Peacock at the time. The Navy List of 1822 has a Thomas Brown in command. Nor was Storms in command during her victories in the War of 1812. That was Lewis Warrington. But whoever inserted that information into the earlier version of the Wiki page on the Peacock wasn’t just pulling it out of thin air. Here is a description of an online auction for a contemporary newspaper account (with a woodcut picture) of a Master Commandant Mr. Peter Storms victories (which were actually achieved with Warrington in command). No idea how that mix up occurred if the article is genuine.
I also found references to Peter Storms (here and here) as a blockade runner aiding the South American revolutionaries. Perhaps one of his ships was a schooner named Peacock that was involved as the DeGrummand book relates and this was conflated with the USS Peacock by the mixed up Wiki editor.