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164-622: Before the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War , the Dutch Republic embarked on a program of fleet expansion after many years of neglect of the fleet. In the period from 1777 to 1789, 92 warships were built, of which 45 were ships of the line . But in the next six years only six ships (including two ships of the line) were added, and the fleet again suffered from neglect. While the new ships were also built with inferior materials, new naval technologies were introduced, like coppering of

328-459: A Hoge Zeekrijgsraad judge his, and his officers', conduct before, during and after the battle. The ensuing controversy, with the finger pointing and acrimony between the admiral, and most of his officers, did almost as much damage to the Batavian officer corps, as the battle itself had done. De Winter felt "betrayed" by especially Rear-Admiral Bloys van Treslong, but also by Rear-Admiral Story and

492-487: A carronade salvo of HMS Triumph ). As this posed a mortal danger for all ships in its neighborhood, Vrijheid was able to use the temporary "truce" that all were forced to observe to break off the fight, bear away to leeward, jibe , and sail back along the line with the intent to take up a new position behind Mars . However, he encountered HMS Director (captain Bligh ) who came barreling down to her from windward; gave her

656-640: A "double prince's flag" on the main mast), that sailed toward the Vlieter consisted of eleven ships of the line, seven frigates, five corvettes , armed with 16 32-pdr carronades, and numerous smaller ships with heavy artillery. Even though it was just a part of the British fleet, its force was far superior to that of Story's fleet. To win time (as he later asserted) to restore order among his crews, Story now sent captains Van Capellen and de Jong as parlimentaires to Isis to warn that he intended to defend himself to

820-576: A British flotilla, and possibly surprising that flotilla. This should be an easy victory that would stimulate national morale in the Batavian Republic no end. Waxing even more ambitious, the Commission (repeating the secret instructions it had given him on 9 July) ordered Admiral de Winter to accept battle from even stronger British forces, as long as they were not obviously superior (an order that would have disastrous consequences). De Winter

984-648: A British squadron of about equal strength under Admiral Hyde Parker in the Battle of Dogger Bank , which ended in a tactical draw. Another promising venture seemed to be what has become known as the Brest Affair . In September 1782, after the Dutch politicians had hesitantly agreed to coordinate their actions with the French, acting "in concert", an opportunity seemed to exist to combine a Dutch squadron of 10 ships of

1148-567: A French squadron under Admiral Picquet de la Motte . The French did not return the goods to the Dutch, however. Though an attempt was made to likewise capture the Dutch Leeward Antilles , these remained in Dutch hands, as did Suriname , though neighbouring Berbice , Demerara , and Essequibo were rapidly taken by the British early in 1781. These were retaken by the French captain Armand de Kersaint in 1782, and restored to

1312-563: A commission to report on the state of the health of the inhabitants of Amsterdam, based on the results of the census. He was part of an international commission to determine the length of the meter, as a first step to introducing the metric system in the Netherlands. His lectures at Felix Meritis from 1777 onwards on this subject were bundled and published as Verhandeling over volmaakte maaten en gewigten in 1802. His international good name led him to be appointed as representative during

1476-500: A dangerous flaw for the leadership of the navy. Another source of discontent was that the pay scales for the officers were not established for another two years (which caused much uncertainty among them, and was seen as a sign of low esteem). To assure the quality of the education of naval officers Jan Hendrik van Swinden was appointed "examinator-general." To manage the naval shipyards (each admiralty previously had had one, autonomous, shipyard to build warships) one "constructor-general"

1640-544: A devastating broadside, which shot down both the foremast and main mast of Vrijheid  ; jibed behind her, came up on her other side, and shot down the mizzen also. Thus completely dismasted, Vrijheid endured the broadsides from Director and other ships, among whom also Venerable , who had followed Vrijheid , for another half hour, before her batteries were silenced. De Winter was brought from Vrijheid to HMS Venerable , on whose quarterdeck he offered his sword to Duncan. According to legend Duncan refused to accept it in

1804-527: A disaster for the Netherlands, particularly economically. It also proved to be confirmation of the weakening of Dutch power in the 18th century. In the immediate aftermath of the war, the bad result was blamed on the stadholder's mismanagement (if not worse) by his opponents, who coalesced into the Patriot party . These managed for a while to roll back a number of the reforms of the revolution of 1747 , strongly diminishing his powers. However, this Patriot revolt

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1968-547: A flotilla of transports with British troops for the Cape on board. After crossing the Tropic of Cancer on 21 May, Lucas hoisted his rear-admiral's pennant, as his promotion now came into effect. After consulting his officers he set sail for Praia on Cape Verde , and from there to Rio de Janeiro , where he omitted, however, to take in water, as by then he apparently had already privately decided to sail directly to Saldanha Bay in

2132-700: A formal military alliance with France and her allies before the end of the war. A treaty of amity and commerce was, however, concluded with the Americans in October 1782, after John Adams, who succeeded Henry Laurens, had managed to obtain diplomatic recognition of the American republic from the States General in April 1782. The republic was the second European power (after France, but before Spain) to recognise

2296-467: A formal reaction to the commission's report till 18 December 1795, informally it started making policy on the basis of provisional recommendations it received. On 17 March 1795 it submitted a proposal to the States General to vote a budget of 7.8 million guilders to reconstruct twelve ships of the line, fourteen frigates, and six smaller vessels, plus eleven coastal defense ships to guard the coastal inlets, to be manned by 9880 sailors. In addition, it proposed

2460-534: A frigate was observed, that was probably HMS  Mozelle , that would warn the British forces of the imminent arrival of the Batavian force. But Lucas did not have the ship pursued. Next, a ship of the line, flying the Spanish flag was observed sailing past the bay, but again Lucas did nothing, despite the protest of his captains. This may have been HMS  Tremendous under Rear-Admiral Thomas Pringle , convoying

2624-580: A gesture of respect and gallantry. This ended the battle. Rear-Admiral Story in Staten General , who had only briefly participated in the battle, when Venerable forced him to bear away remained a safe distance away to leeward, where he kept cruising while other stragglers from the battle, and the frigates and other smaller ships, that had maintained a parallel course to leeward of the main line of battle, joined his flag. In this way he saved about half of de Winter's fleet. The Batavian navy lost nine of

2788-469: A happenstance battle in the Cape Verde Islands , Suffren was able to arrive before Johnstone, and the strength of French troops he left dissuaded Johnstone from attacking the colony. After capturing a number of VOC ships in the nearby Saldanha Bay , he returned to North Atlantic waters. Suffren had continued on to Isle de France (now Mauritius ) and then India. There, he arrived and fought

2952-534: A low level while they lasted. The British government also made overtures to the Dutch to come to a speedy conclusion of hostilities, especially after the cabinet of Lord North had been replaced by that of Rockingham and Fox in March 1782. Fox immediately proposed a separate peace on favourable conditions to the Dutch government. Unfortunately for the Dutch, they had just bound themselves closer to France by agreeing to act "in concert" with France in naval actions, so

3116-404: A mutiny in the fleet. It is against this background that we need to see the series of events around the squadron of Rear-Admiral Story, consisting of the ships of the line Washington (cap. Van Capellen), Leyden (cap. Van Braam), Cerberus (cap.de Jong), Utrecht (cap. Kolff), de Ruyter (cap. Huys), Gelderland (cdr. Waldeck), Beschermer (cap. Eylbracht), and Batavier (cap. Van Senden);

3280-399: A new commander-in-chief immediately and in this post, the former navy lieutenant (but now general) de Winter was appointed (12 March 1795). This was followed by the appointment of six vice-admirals (one of whom was de Winter) and three rear-admirals on 26 July 1795. The quick elevation of de Winter above his older, and more experienced, colleagues could only cause jealousy, and this later proved

3444-417: A new officer corps that was qualitatively substandard, many flag officers having been promoted from subaltern ranks, without having acquired the necessary experience, especially in combat. The new officer corps also became divided between the "new" and "old" officers (after some of those returned) who mutually mistrusted each other, leading to frequent suspicions of disloyalty, even treason. The new navy needed

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3608-662: A number of actions against Hughes. Suffren attempted to take the Dutch port of Negapatam ( taken by the British in 1781 ), but was frustrated by Hughes . In August, the French recaptured Trincomalee , and Suffren fought Hughes to a standstill in a naval battle several days later. The two fleets withdrew and the British repaired in Bombay while the French refitted in the Dutch colony of Sumatra . Hughes and Suffren met again in 1783, but news of preliminary peace between France and Britain ended hostilities in India. In August 1781, word of

3772-505: A position to lead the Batavian navy (de Winter could no longer serve, as he was considered a "not-exchanged" prisoner of war, who had given his word not to fight against Great Britain "for the duration of the war"). The National Assembly, and the French Directorate, felt that the losses of Camperdown needed to be made good as soon as possible. This necessitated a fresh dose of "extraordinary taxation". The Committee on Finance of

3936-535: A prize from the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities . His description of Eise Eisinga 's planetarium in 1780 was later republished. In 1785 he moved to Amsterdam where he became professor at the Athenaeum Illustre of Amsterdam . There he was instrumental in introducing a house numbering system (useful for the postal service) and in 1795 he directed the first census. In 1798 he led

4100-412: A rather precise number of British casualties, but the numbers of casualties on the Batavian side are imprecise. De Jonge says that those losses amounted to 1200 casualties in total, of which 400 immediately killed, and 600 wounded, on the captured ships alone. Among the casualties were Vice-Admiral Reintjes (died in captivity), and Rear-Admiral Bloys van Treslong (lost an arm), and several of the captains of

4264-474: A reliable manager of national interests in the Netherlands when "normalcy" (in the sense of the Act of Guarantee and Triple Alliance ) would have been restored in that country. Grenville expected the Dutch populace to share his distaste for the "revolutionary evils" that had befallen the Netherlands since 1795, and he thought that, given the chance, the soldiers and sailors of the Batavian armed forces would go over to

4428-472: A resurgence of the republic as a major power because of what many in the republic saw as the mismanagement of the stadtholderian regency during the minority of stadtholder William V , and subsequently during his own reign. Instead, the republic remained stubbornly neutral during the Seven Years' War , which enabled it to greatly neglect both its army and navy. The stadtholderian regime was pro-British, with

4592-473: A revolution in Ireland. This idea appealed to the French, because they saw Ireland as the strategic backdoor to Great Britain. This resulted in the failed expedition to Ireland at the end of 1796. After this defeat the French did not give up, but started planning for an even more grandiose enterprise, that would consist of a two-pronged invasion of Ireland. The southern prong would take a Franco-Spanish fleet to

4756-496: A separate peace was no longer an option. A real military alliance with France was, however, still blocked by the stadtholder, despite the fact that many in the republic favoured it. The war, as far as it went, was fought in three main theatres. Britain blockaded Dutch ports in Europe, and embarked on expeditions to seize Dutch colonial properties throughout the world. These were almost entirely successful; only an attempt to capture

4920-404: A total budget for sea and land forces of 32 million guilders. The provincial delegations in the States General then committed themselves to supply ten million (seven million from Holland alone) guilders as an emergency budget, of which six million was destined for the navy. The financing having been secured, the navy then started with alacrity to implement the construction program. The shipyards of

5084-401: A way it was emblematic for the stoic heroism displayed on both sides. After Venerable had driven Staten General out of the line of battle with the same tactic HMS Monarch earlier used against Jupiter , she engaged Vrijheid on her leeward, while that ship at the same time was engaged with HMS Ardent on her windward. There may have been one other British ship involved. De Winter, being in

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5248-487: Is what happened time and again in the remainder of the battle, and the fact that Duncan in HMS Venerable repeated the breach of the line of battle through the gap between Staten General and Wassenaar a quarter of an hour later, is mere detail. We can dispense with the tales of the individual duels, except for that between Vrijheid and a number of British ships, among which HMS Ardent and HMS Venerable , as in

5412-620: The Dutch Caribbean ). After sailing around Scotland the two fleets split up. Lucas followed the usual route to the Canary Islands , and from there to Brazil , to take advantage of the westerlies toward the Cape of Good Hope . The fleet stayed no less than 34 days at the bay of La Luz, Gran Canaria to take in water and supplies. During that period two events happened that would have a great influence on further developments. First,

5576-545: The Dutch populace to reject the ideological trappings of the French-imposed Batavian authorities. Though a Foxite himself, and so relatively enlightened, Grenville was very conservative , in the mold of Irish statesman Edmund Burke , compared to the politicians in the Batavian Republic. The Erfprins and he felt a certain philosophical and political affinity, which made him believe that that person would be

5740-454: The Erfprins , in which case they would be able to sail out to the British fleet unmolested and join that fleet. The visit was certainly irregular, in the sense that the pilot boat in which the parlimentaires traveled was allowed to pass the guard line, maintained by Amphitre and Embuscade , without warning Story, and they boarded Washington without his permission. This misplaced leniency

5904-658: The Leiden University , where he became doctor of philosophy on 12 June 1766 with the thesis De attractione . He became professor at the University of Franeker the same year, where he continued to study and conduct research as well as teach. In 1776 he won a prize from the French Academy of Sciences along with Charles-Augustin de Coulomb for his work on Earth's magnetic field , and the relationship between magnetism and electricity . A year later he won

6068-411: The political approach he was to take after he had made his landing, and he was encouraged to make use of the services of the supporters of the "antient constitution"(sic), wherever he could find them. To set these political effects in motion, the general was to promulgate a Proclamation, that had been issued for the occasion by the Erfprins in the name of his father, which in peremptory terms commanded

6232-525: The "natural leaders" of the men had a special influence on opinion formation. Repeatedly, these key personnel proved to be either Organist "agitators" themselves, or at least to turn a blind eye to political agitation, that would foment mutinies at crucial moments. The first consequence of this recruitment problem was that the newly-operational ships had to stay in port, due to lack of personnel to sail in them. The government, therefore, intensified its efforts to make enlistment more attractive. A propaganda effort

6396-516: The 1780s. He also improved the General Seinbook (General signal book) which was used to communicate at sea between ships. Van Kinsbergen also introduced reforms to improve military discipline in the fleet. A certain number of improvements were therefore made after the war, but the incompetence of the admiralties was a big drag on progress. Grand Pensionary Laurens Pieter van de Spiegel , therefore, attempted to abolish them and reorganize

6560-725: The American agent in Aix-la-Chapelle , William Lee , with the connivance of the Amsterdam pensionary Van Berckel , and found among the effects of Henry Laurens , an American diplomat who had been apprehended by the British cruiser HMS Vestal in September 1780, on the high seas. He had been sent by the Continental Congress to establish diplomatic relations with the Dutch Republic. The draft treaty

6724-666: The April 1797 French elections temporarily cooled the ardor of the radicals in the Directory. However, their radical colleagues in the Batavian Commission on Foreign Affairs of the National Assembly were still keen to show their dedication to the revolutionary cause (and incidentally prove to the French Directory that an independent Batavian Republic was worth supporting). So the "northern" prong of

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6888-457: The Batavian Republic decided to impanel a Hoge Zeekrijgsraad (High Naval Court) itself (19 May 1797). Jacobus Spoors was appointed prosecutor. As Lucas had died, he could no longer be tried, however. So it was decided to commission Spoors to conduct an investigation into Lucas' conduct, and write a report. This report was eventually adopted by the Court, and presented to the National Assembly. As

7052-583: The Batavian Republic began to circulate. This convinced the Uitvoerend Bewind that any foreign adventures had to be abandoned until this danger had been averted. The rumors eventually proved to be more than rumors, and the invasion took place in August of 1799, beginning with the British amphibious landing at Callantsoog , covered by a British fleet under Admiral Andrew Mitchell . Unbeknownst to

7216-517: The Batavian Republic had still used the flag of the old Republic, known as the Prince's Flag . But the authorities now decided to do away with this symbol of the old regime, and to issue a proclamation by which a new flag design was instituted (see illustration at the top of this article). This measure was, of course, popular with the partisans of the government, but very unpopular with the Organists in

7380-616: The Batavian Republic in a cartel ship , after having given their parole . After Lucas returned to the Netherlands, he was arrested by the Naval Affairs Committee, and imprisoned in the Huis ten Bosch palace , pending his court-martial. During this imprisonment his health deteriorated so fast, that he had to be allowed to go home, and he died soon afterward, on 21 June 1797. Exceptionally, the National Assembly of

7544-436: The Batavian whips' collapsed. Drunken sailors, shouting Organist slogans, trampled the Batavian flag, and officers and sailors of known Patriot sympathies were assaulted, and had to defend themselves with their side arms . Stores of victuals and especially liquor, were looted. This went on until the British intervened and arrested the ringleaders. Most of the crew members defected to the British. The officers were transported to

7708-669: The Batavians, Admiral Mitchell had a "secret weapon" on board his flagship , in the person of the Erfprins (Hereditary Prince of Orange), the future King William I of the Netherlands and eldest son of the Stadtholder William V . This " Serene Highness ", though a former general commanding troops in battle, at this point in time was no more than an émigré , who had joined forces with the British government of Foreign Secretary William Grenville . Grenville in his turn had high hopes of an easy military victory, as he expected

7872-548: The British Navigation Acts ) and re-exported to Europe. For their return cargo, the Americans purchased arms, munitions, and naval stores brought to the island by Dutch and French merchants. In 1776 the governor of the island, Johannes de Graeff , was the first to salute the flag of the United States , leading to growing British suspicions of the Dutch. In 1778, the Dutch refused take Britain's side in

8036-596: The British embargo . The British then unilaterally declared naval stores to be contraband and enforced their embargo by arresting Dutch and other neutral ships on the high seas. This led to strong protests by the affected Dutch merchants, who demanded institution of convoys escorted by the Dutch States Navy , to protect them against the Royal Navy and British privateers . According to customary international law, such convoys were (and still are) exempt from

8200-462: The British prize courts , in wars in which the Dutch remained neutral. According to the treaty naval stores , including ship's timbers, masts, spars, canvas, tar, rope, and pitch, were not contraband and the Dutch, therefore, were free to continue their trade with France in these goods. Because of the still-important role of the Dutch in the European carrying trade, this opened up a large loophole in

8364-409: The British fleet. Meanwhile, Admiral Duncan apparently had some difficulties with his own battle formation. But he had the luxury of having the weather gage, which allowed his ships to approach the Batavian line of battle before the wind, and to select more or less freely where they would engage that line, so the fact that the British fleet did not form a nice, evenly spaced, line-abreast formation, but

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8528-635: The British. During the Second Stadtholderless Period , the Dutch Republic had more or less abdicated its pretences as a major power and this became painfully evident to the rest of Europe during the War of the Austrian Succession . Near the end of that war in 1747, an Orangist revolution restored the stadtholderate with vastly increased powers for the stadtholder and made the stadtholderate hereditary. This did not lead to

8692-435: The Cape colony, despite the fact that he knew that the Cape was in British hands. He had secret instructions to sail on to Mauritius in case the Cape were securely in British hands (which had been uncertain when the fleet sailed, but had now been confirmed), but he did not inform his council of war of this, so his officers agreed with the plan to go to the bay, also because the lack of water became pressing. The fleet arrived in

8856-550: The Commission he had to accept battle and at 9   am hoisted signal No. 655 of the Dutch General Signal book: come to line of battle, close-hauled on the port tack, behind your assigned predecessors. Due to the limitations of square-rigged ships , which generally could not get closer to the wind than under an angle of 70 degrees with the wind direction, this worked out as a compass course of NE. The Batavian fleet had been sailing with "short sail" in three divisions:

9020-729: The Dutch Elmina Castle on the Africa's Gold Coast (modern Ghana ) failed. While many Dutch territories in the West Indies were taken by the British, some, like Curaçao , were not attacked due to their defensive strength. As far as the Dutch were concerned, the war in the West Indies was over almost before it had begun. Admiral Rodney , the commander of the Leeward Islands station of the Royal Navy, attacked

9184-411: The Dutch Republic, making it the second European country to diplomatically recognise the Continental Congress in April 1782. In October 1782, a treaty of amity and commerce was concluded as well. Most of the war consisted of a series of British operations against Dutch colonial economic interests, although British and Dutch naval forces also met once off the Dutch coast . The war ended disastrously for

9348-520: The Dutch after the war. Admiral Hartsinck at first proved himself highly reluctant to risk his fleet. However, political pressure to venture outside the safety of the Texel roadstead mounted and several cautious attempts were made to capture British convoys, or escort Dutch convoys. In one of those forays, an unusually strong squadron, under Admiral Johan Zoutman and his second-in-command, Rear Admiral Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen , encountered in August 1781

9512-584: The Dutch and exposed the weakness of the political and economic foundations of the republic. The war settled the decline of the Dutch Empire and further cemented Great Britain as the leading commercial power . Although Great Britain and the Dutch Republic had been allies since the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Dutch had become very much the junior partner in the alliance and had slowly lost their former dominance of world trade to

9676-669: The Dutch coast could not be used against the French, Americans, and Spaniards in other theatres of war. This may have contributed to a number of the naval defeats the British suffered after 1781. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) had been responsible for defending its own colonies east of the Cape Colony , but for the first time, had to request assistance from the Dutch navy. However, ships were lacking at first and what naval forces were available were unable to prevent Britain from taking full control of Dutch India . In early 1782 British Admiral Sir Edward Hughes captured Trincomalee on

9840-462: The Dutch colonies in that part of the Caribbean : St. Eustatius, Saba , and Saint Martin , as soon as he had received word of the declaration of war, in the process surprising a number of Dutch naval and merchant ships, which were still unaware of the start of hostilities. St. Eustatius ( captured on 3 February 1781 ), that had played such a large role in the supply of the American rebels with arms,

10004-503: The Dutch fleet, the blockade itself exacted its toll on the British seamen, who were at sea for long times at a stretch (which even exposed them to the danger of scurvy ) and the ships that suffered from severe wear and tear. Also, because an appreciable number of ships had to be detached to maintain naval superiority in the North Sea, the already overstretched Royal Navy was even more strained after 1781. Ships that were needed to blockade

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10168-499: The Dutch naval commanders, especially Vice Admiral Andries Hartsinck, who commanded the Texel squadron, to keep the fleet at anchor, thereby ceding dominance of the North Sea to the blockading British fleet. Within a few weeks of the beginning of the war, more than 200 Dutch merchantmen, with cargo to the amount of 15 million guilders, had been captured by the British and 300 more were locked up in foreign ports. Another reason for

10332-673: The Dutch people to rally to the cause of the House of Orange. Dundas had counselled the Prince to sweeten his tone with some conciliatory language, and hints at reform, but in his arrogance the Prince opted for clear language, which only served to alienate the population, as soon turned out. As far as the Batavian fleet in the Texel roadstead was concerned, Organist agents actively suborned a number of naval officers in that fleet, like Aegidius van Braam and Theodorus Frederik van Capellen , respectively

10496-670: The Dutch ships. However, after the Treaty of Den Haag had been concluded, the ships were returned to the Batavian Republic . Meanwhile, the old organisational structure of the Dutch navy had been overturned. The office of Stadtholder , who also had been Captain-General of the Dutch States Army , and Admiral-General of the fleet, was abolished right away in the first days of the Batavian Revolution . Soon

10660-471: The French and their allies went ahead with the signing of the general peace. The Dutch, therefore, were forced to sign a preliminary peace just before that general treaty was signed. The republic joined the armistice between Britain and France in January 1783. The signing of the Treaty of Paris (1783–1784) made Negapatnam , in India, a British colony. Ceylon was restored to Dutch control. The British gained

10824-486: The National Assembly, therefore, proposed an eight percent tax on income, based on a sliding scale, and starting with annual incomes over 300 guilders, in November 1797. This was a complete novelty, as this was to be a national tax, whereas heretofore all taxes were apportioned and levied at the provincial level. This novelty was only possible because the defeat at Camperdown had caused a "national emergency". This proposal

10988-501: The Netherlands after the annexation by the French empire in 1810. So the Batavian navy had to use moral suasion (an appeal to the patriotism of the citizens) and high enlistment bonuses to persuade suitable candidates to enlist. This attracted many foreign sailors, who had been employed by the Dutch merchant marine , but were now unemployed. Dutchmen needed more encouragement, so the navy was forced to use many less-suitable candidates, like

11152-555: The Patriot faction. Many were forced to go into exile (among them Jan Willem de Winter , the future commander-in-chief of the Batavian navy, who was a lieutenant at the time). Many of these people returned with the Dutch troops in the army of the French Republic (de Winter as a général de brigade ). They felt not only hatred for the defeated Stadtholderate , but also for its adherents under the naval officers, who had conducted

11316-410: The South of Ireland, while the northern prong would have the Batavian fleet convoy a fleet of transports with 25,000 French troops (conveniently located in the Batavian Republic as the French army of occupation) aboard around the north of Scotland, toward Northern Ireland. The battle of Cape St. Vincent in February 1797 knocked the Spanish fleet out of the race, and the victory of the French royalists in

11480-457: The Stadtholder was held responsible by the new regime). To get a view of what the real state of the fleet was, the Naval Affairs Committee appointed a commission, consisting of its member, the distinguished scientist Henricus Aeneae , the future rear-admirals Samuel Story and Engelbertus Lucas , and Constructor-General Glavimans to inspect the ships then in service (26 February 1795). The commission already reported on 26 May 1795. It reported that

11644-478: The States General to refuse the British request. More importantly, Dutch merchants, especially those from Amsterdam, became involved in the supply of arms and munitions to the American rebels soon after the outbreak of American Revolutionary War. This trade was mainly conducted via the Caribbean entrepôt of St. Eustatius , an island colony of the Dutch West India Company . There, American colonial wares, such as tobacco and indigo, were imported (in contravention of

11808-549: The Texel were repaired; two coastal-defense guard ships were converted to ships of the line; the new ships that were still in the stocks were ordered to be expeditiously finished; the construction of four new ships of the line of 68 guns was ordered; and three new frigates started. Early in the Spring of 1798 two ships of the line of 76 guns, seven of 68 guns, two of 56 guns, and two razees of 44 guns, six frigates of 22 to 36 guns, and four brigs of 16 to 18 guns were operational. And in

11972-402: The United States. Adams also succeeded in raising a substantial loan for the Americans on the still-significant Dutch capital market. The republic involved itself in the peace congress that the French foreign minister, Vergennes , organised, negotiating separately with the British commissioners. The Dutch demands were not supported by the French, and this put them into an untenable position when

12136-464: The VOC, which already in a severe crisis, was to go bankrupt just a few years later. Jean Henri van Swinden Jean Henri van Swinden (8 June 1746 – 9 March 1823) was a Dutch mathematician and physicist who taught at the University of Franeker and in the Athenaeum Illustre of Amsterdam . His parents were the lawyer Phillippe van Swinden and Marie Anne Tollosan. He was trained 1763-1766 at

12300-543: The West Indies because they were unaware the war had started. A convoy under Rear Admiral Willem Krul was lost this way near St. Eustatius in February 1781, and the admiral was killed in the short action; in a different action, Captain Bylandt (a nephew of the admiral of the same name) surrendered his ship. The pronounced inferiority of the Dutch fleet, and its state of "unreadiness" was a frequently reiterated excuse for

12464-465: The admiral ever more stringently to stop dallying and get out to sea. This exchange proved very embarrassing to the Commission when the political Opposition in the National Assembly got hold of them after the battle. The obstructing westerly winds finally abated and at 9:30   am on October 7, 1797 the fleet weighed anchor and left the Texel anchorage. De Winter plotted a course for the Meuse estuary in

12628-561: The admiralty boards were abolished and replaced by a standing Committee on Naval Affairs of the Provisional Representatives of the People of Holland . A measure that would have a long-lasting deleterious influence was the wholesale cashiering of the corps of naval officers. In 1787, after the repression of the Patriot revolution through Prussian military intervention, the Dutch navy was purged of suspected members of

12792-483: The alleged state of "unreadiness" themselves). The opponents of the stadtholder demanded an investigation that was, however, very long drawn out, and quietly terminated after the stadtholder was restored in his full powers after 1787, long after the end of the war. Though, except for the Dogger-Bank skirmish, no major battles were fought in European waters, and the British blockade encountered little opposition from

12956-553: The armed support of the other members of the league to maintain their neutral status. The British government saw the danger of this move (it might embroil Great Britain in war with Russia and the Nordic powers Sweden and Denmark–Norway also), so declared war on the republic shortly after it announced its intentions in December 1780. To forestall Russia from coming to the aid of the Dutch (something Empress Catherine II of Russia

13120-459: The bay on 6 August, without having met British ships. What happened next, therefore, was for a large part the fault of Rear-Admiral Lucas and his neglectful conduct. He was soon confronted by a superior British force, both at sea and on land even though he had been warned by people living nearby that an appreciable British infantry force was nearing. The work of taking in water was going forward very slowly, as it had to be obtained from far inland, so

13284-742: The blockade by the Royal Navy (France being the weaker naval power in that conflict). The Dutch were privileged by a concession obtained after their victory in the Second Anglo-Dutch War , known as the principle of "free ship, free goods", which was enshrined in the Anglo-Dutch Commercial Treaty of 1668, reconfirmed in the Treaty of Westminster (1674) . This early formulation of the principle of Freedom of Navigation exempted all but narrowly defined " contraband " goods carried in Dutch ships from confiscation by

13448-402: The captain of Leyden and Rear-Admiral Story's flag captain on Washington who were among the officers from the old navy, who had been let go in 1795, but had been recommissioned after Camperdown to fill the many vacancies in the officer corps. They frequently appear in the correspondence of secret agent Charles Bentinck about Batavian officers he deemed pro-Orangist, and willing and able to lead

13612-400: The combination Vice-Admiral Reintjes/Rear-Admiral Meurer (not to speak of the captains who had really acted in a cowardly way, like cdrs. Souter of Batavier and Jacobsson of Cerberus ). De Winter was himself acquitted of dereliction of duty (but only with a 4-3 majority), and Bloys van Treslong and Meurer convicted. So of the flag officers who had started in the battle only Story remained in

13776-483: The country, many of whom belonged to the groups in the population from which the navy recruited its enlistees. The new flag therefore mainly served to undermine the morale of the sailors in the fleet, which would prove to have dire consequences in the future. The Dutch Cape Colony had been captured by the British in September 1795. This put the communication lines to the Dutch East Indies (which had become

13940-635: The course of 1798 several more ships of the line were launched. Despite these good results, after the Coup of January 1798 the new Uitvoerend Bewind (Executive Authority) decided to replace the Committee for Naval Affairs (like all standing committees of the National Assembly) with a so-called Agent for the Navy (like other Agents were appointed to lead other government departments), with which

14104-479: The crew had put unauthorized guards on the doors of the powder room in the night of 29 August, because rumors were circulating that the officers intended to blow up the ship), but were sufficiently serious to worry Story. However, he neglected to take steps to nip the impending mutiny in the bud, fearing that taking forceful action would only make matters worse (a standpoint shared by the other officers). The British squadron under Admiral Mitchell aboard HMS Isis (with

14268-585: The crew, and to hand out copies in both English and Dutch of the proclamation of Abercromby and the Erfprins . In this way the crew of the Washington (and probably also Embuscade ) received knowledge of the approach of the British fleet, with the Erfprins on board, and also of the coming Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland. This information appears to have made a profound impression on the crew of Washington (and other ships), especially as "agitation" already appears to have been going on. Story might have stopped

14432-468: The death, which probably would result in the total annihilation of the ships Mitchell had earlier said he hoped to acquire for his navy. This ambiguous message did not impress Mitchell, who countered with an ultimatum to hoist the Prince's flag, and surrender the fleet, or Mitchell's fleet would be ordered to engage. Mitchell gave Story an hour to weigh his options and make his decision. Meanwhile, things had gotten out of hand on Washington . The crew stormed

14596-465: The debacle. Nevertheless, the National Assembly, after lively debate, accepted the explanation of the Commission. So the focus of the Batavian public's demand for Answers became de Winter and his officers. All were initially hailed as Heroes, especially de Winter, but inevitably more critical questions were eventually raised, prompting the admiral after his return from captivity in 1798 (he and his officers were let go on giving their paroles ) to demand that

14760-412: The directive of 6 July. Though the rest of the van assumed the correct positions, Brutus and Tjerk Hiddes held back, and assumed positions behind Vrijheid in the center division. De Winter ordered Tjerk Hiddes forward to the back of the van, but he somehow omitted to do this for Brutus . The consequence of this error was that the vanguard missed both a flag officer to lead it, and a strong ship of

14924-568: The eastern coast of Dutch Ceylon , considered to be the finest harbour in the Bay of Bengal . In March 1781, British Admiral George Johnstone was sent to capture the Cape Colony. France, which had already planned to send a fleet to India, received intelligence of this, and directed its commander, the Bailli de Suffren , to try to reach the Cape before Johnstone. After Johnstone and Suffren met in

15088-487: The expectation that his order to the commander of Kortenaer to leave his anchorage would be obeyed, but adverse winds again prevented this. The fleet, therefore, spent the next few days cruising up and down that area of the Dutch coast and futilely chasing the squadron of captain Henry Trollope that was observing him from a tantalizingly close distance. The Batavian ships were too slow, however. Meanwhile, Duncan

15252-410: The fleet became an urgent need. Re-enlistment of some previous naval personnel was helped by the fact that due to the dire economic situation of the shipping industry there was widespread unemployment under able seamen. However, recruitment turned out to be slow. The Dutch navy had never used impressment , like the Royal Navy, and conscription , both for the navy and the army, would only be introduced in

15416-493: The fleet lost several days in which it would still have been able to get away. The sailors who went ashore showed a disturbing tendency to desert or defect to the enemy. Meanwhile, Lucas did not make haste, mostly because he discounted news of a British fleet coming near. Departure had been set for 16 August, but again was delayed. And by then it was too late and the fleet was surrounded both on land, and by sea. Lucas at first prepared to fight at anchor, but mutinies broke out aboard

15580-433: The fleet, and with 100 company soldiers sailed for Padang . On 18 August, Jacob van Heemskerk, the VOC chief resident at Padang, surrendered all of the west coast outposts without a fight, unaware that Botham's force was relatively weak. The capture netted the British 500,000 florins in goods and money. The fortress at Padang was destroyed before the town was returned to VOC control in 1784. The republic did not form

15744-557: The forces of the Coalition to the last man, and the population would erupt into armed insurrection, as soon as the Orange standard had been raised. But there was more than just this ideological predilection. Organist secret agents, like Charles Bentinck, had brought tales of disaffection under the Dutch population, that tended to confirm what Grenville already believed, and thus reinforce Grenville's optimism. There were also stories about

15908-506: The frigates Amphitre (cdr. Schutter), Mars (cdr. Bock), Embuscade (cdr. Rivert), and the brig Galathee (lt. Droop) that started with the arrival of the British fleet before the Texel on 19 August, and was followed by the visit of three parlimentaires , col. Frederick Maitland , cap. Robert Winthrop , and Lieutenant George Collier , to Admiral Story aboard Washington on 21 August. They were sent by General Abercromby and Admiral Duncan to demand that Story and his squadron "come over" to

16072-402: The funds for such a naval-construction program, it progressed but slowly. Another reason for the slow expansion of the Dutch fleet was a lack of suitable recruits—the Dutch navy paid lower wages than the merchant marine and did not use impressment like the Royal Navy. The number of available ships was diminished even more at the start of the war when several ships were captured by the British in

16236-585: The future vanguard under Rear-Admiral Bloys van Treslong in Brutus to windward ; the center division under Rear-Admiral Samuel Story in Staten Generaal , including the flagship Vrijheid of Vice-Admiral de Winter himself, in the middle; and the future rearguard under Vice-Admiral Reintjes in Jupiter to leeward. De Winter had issued a directive about the order of battle, giving the sequence in which

16400-413: The gap between Jupiter and Haarlem , thereby "breaching" the Batavian line-of-battle. This enabled him to luff up to leeward of Jupiter and engage that ship from a position that Reintjes had difficulty covering, as his leeward battery could not be brought to bear. Jupiter therefore had to bear away to lee, widening the break in the Batavian line. According to the experts in the naval court martial that

16564-528: The general had other ambitions. He decided to give priority to his invasion of Egypt , and so the Batavian navy spent a lot of money and effort in vain on a project that did not go ahead. Similar projects: another planned invasion of Ireland in early 1799, and when that plan was cancelled, an expedition to the Dutch East Indies with the same ships and troops, were also cancelled by early 1799. But then rumors of an impending Anglo-Russian invasion of

16728-441: The hulls , and new armament, like carronades . Naval establishments, like the port at Nieuwediep and the dry dock at Flushing were repaired and improved. In 1792, the decision was finally made to reserve a fixed sum on the war budget for maintenance of the fleet (which had up to that time been the responsibility of the five Dutch admiralties). The stadtholder proposed in 1792 to form a permanent corps of marines , but this

16892-533: The humiliating Affair of Fielding and Bylandt on 31 December, which enraged Dutch public opinion and further undermined the position of the stadtholder. The incident motivated the Dutch to seek admission to the First League of Armed Neutrality , which espoused the principle of "free ship, free goods", especially after Britain formally abrogated the Commercial Treaty of 1668. The Dutch hoped to gain

17056-470: The impending battle. The council of war therefore unanimously decided to surrender the fleet, making it clear that they did not hand it over, as Mitchell had demanded, but gave in to superior power, and considered themselves prisoners of war. The captains Van Capellen and de Jong were again sent out to convey the message to Admiral Mitchell. Fourth Anglo-Dutch War The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War ( Dutch : Vierde Engels-Nederlandse Oorlog ; 1780–1784)

17220-509: The inland waterways and Medemblik would be given the naval installations to support an anchorage for the reserve fleet in the Zuiderzee . The roadstead at the Texel, though it had been improved with hydraulic engineering , was not yet deemed usable as a fixed naval base. Though the new shipbuilding activity was started with great enthusiasm (and it stimulated the local economy of Amsterdam no end), it soon got into financial difficulties as

17384-489: The lack of activity of the Dutch navy was the fact that diplomatic activity never ceased and gave the Dutch government the illusion that the war would be of only short duration. Empress Catharine, though she refused to come to the aid of the Dutch, was very active in offering her services to mediate the dispute. Both the British and the Dutch, with varying amounts of sincerity, cooperated in these diplomatic manoeuvres, which came to nothing, but helped to keep military activities at

17548-439: The land provinces were remiss in providing the promised emergency financing. Construction ground to a halt in the second part of 1795, until the Naval Affairs Committee, in desperation, threatened to resign in September 1795. This had the desired result. Up to the middle of 1796 the fleet grew to 66 ships, among which 20 ships of the line, and 30 frigates. After the crews of the old navy had been paid off in February 1795, remaining

17712-436: The line with the French squadron at Brest , as the British fleet in the channel had suddenly sailed south. However, Hartsinck, as usual, made objections, based on intelligence that British ships lay in ambush. When this proved false, the stadtholder ordered him to send the squadron, under command of Vice Admiral Count Lodewijk van Bylandt to Brest. However, as had happened countless times before, Bylandt, after having inspected

17876-432: The line and 24 frigates in total). The remainder should be scrapped (at a cost of 3.3 million guilders , while the cost of the repairs would be 4.7 million guilders). Fortunately, the state of the shipyards was satisfactory, though the stocks of materials were below par. The state of the naval installations, like ports and docks, varied, with some needing appreciable investments. Though the Naval Affairs Committee waited for

18040-406: The line. De Winter later asserted that this was one of the main reasons why he lost the battle. Likewise, the order of battle of the rearguard differed from the intended one, as Delft (which ship had been sent to investigate a number of sails to leeward, and therefore had difficulty rejoining the fleet in time) was directed by Admiral Reintjes to take up the last position in the line. The strength of

18204-429: The loss of the shore batteries had indeed made the Texel anchorage indefensible, Story now made the fateful decision to retreat to the Vlieter . The fleet left the Texel anchorage in the morning of 28 August, to make the short trip to the new anchorage, but because of the southerly wind, was forced to anchor before the trench, instead of inside it. Story later defended taking this unfavorable position (if he had anchored at

18368-423: The members of Commission on Foreign Affairs (though they certainly craved those encomiums), who now faced the wrath of the "radical" opposition in the National Assembly, who painted the defeat as the direct result of the chaos "eating away at the heart of the government". Certainly, even objective observers, like de Jonge, fifty years later, blame primarily the rashness of the Commission in forcing de Winter's hand for

18532-423: The minority, tried to signal the remainder of the center division ( Brutus , Leyden and Mars ) under Rear-Admiral Bloys van Treslong, to come to his aid, but his signal-rigging was shot away repeatedly While the four ships were busy firing at each other, with much loss of life, but no decisive effect, they suddenly encountered the flaming wreck of the Batavian ship Hercules (which had earlier been set on fire by

18696-441: The narrowest point of the channel, his position would have been far stronger), because he intended to return to the Texel anchorage as soon as the British transports would have entered that anchorage, to attack that fleet in a vulnerable state. But as the wind now turned north he could not execute this plan, so he decided to take up the position in the channel after all, where he had the fleet go into line of battle on 29 August. Then

18860-495: The navy had available 40 ships of the line of different ratings , 35 frigates, and 104 smaller vessels. However, many of these ships were in bad repair, and could only be made operational after expensive repairs would be made. The commission judged that only four ships of the line of 74 guns, fourteen of 60 to 68 guns, and six of 50 to 56 guns, would be worth the trouble to be made operational; likewise, five frigates of 40 to 46 guns, eight of 36, and eleven of 20 to 24 guns (24 ships of

19024-422: The navy into a modern navy department, but he was thwarted in these attempts by vested interests. The state of the fleet, therefore, was dire when war with the revolutionary French republic broke out, and the Dutch Republic was eventually overrun by the French in early 1795. The Staatse vloot in its entirety was a war booty for the French army . The officers and crews were paid off, and French crews took over

19188-716: The navy were modernized (punishments like keelhauling , inconsistent with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, adopted by the Provisional Representatives on 31 January 1795, were abolished, and replaced with more humane forms). The General Order for the Service at Sea was also modernized. The fleet had been severely neglected in the years before the revolution by the old regime (for which

19352-477: The nearby anchorage of the Vlieter (a tidal trench between sandbanks near what is in our days the western end of the Afsluitdijk ), in case the anchorage would have become indefensible, but he had retracted that order a few days later, and ordered Story to defend against a naval incursion with the fleet in the Texel anchorage. However, Story later vehemently denied having received that second order. Seeing that

19516-441: The new construction of three ships of the line and three frigates at an estimated cost of 2.4 million guilders. In addition a sum of five million guilders had to be supplied to pay the overdue debts of the old admiralties, as credit for new construction would otherwise not be forthcoming from suppliers. The entire financial need for the next twelve months for the navy was estimated at 15.2 million guilders. The States General then voted

19680-420: The old admiralties were in principle available, but they needed administrative reform. It was therefore decided to concentrate the bulk of big-ship construction at the Amsterdam shipyard. On the other hand, Hoorn would henceforth specialize in the construction of frigates, and Enkhuizen be relegated to the construction of small vessels. Harlingen would henceforth limit itself to the construction of brigs for

19844-427: The organizational structure of a government department under a Minister was for the first time introduced for the Dutch navy (as this structure was retained under later regime changes). The first Agent was Jacobus Spoors , who was, however, very reluctant to assume the new office. The first task for the new fleet would be the support of General Napoleon Bonaparte 's project of an invasion of England in 1798. However,

20008-462: The planned invasion in Ireland was kept alive, with the 25,000 French troops replaced with 15,000 troops from the Batavian army under command of the Batavian revolutionary hero, Lt.-General Herman Willem Daendels . These troops were embarked in a fleet of transports, lying in the Texel roadstead, in June. They spent the summer of 1797 in steadily increasing misery aboard the ships, while the Batavian fleet

20172-439: The pupils in the orphanages. Also the government decided to force a number of the mercenaries of the Batavian army to transfer to the navy, a very unpopular policy, that caused the desertion rates in the army to increase. The dearth of professional non-commissioned officers was especially pressing. These career navy personnel, like bosuns and bosun's mates , and specialists like, gunners and gunner's mates could only be found among

20336-477: The purge in 1787. The purge that the Naval Affairs Committee now instituted probably was therefore motivated by this rancor, and also by the fear that the "old guard" officers would constitute a " Fifth column ". But the immediate effect of the rash measure was that the navy lost a large number of experienced and competent officers, like Admiral Van Kinsbergen, who later refused to return to the service, when they were asked. The Batavian navy, therefore, started out with

20500-510: The quarterdeck, threatened the officers, declared that they would refuse orders to fight, and even started to throw ammunition overboard. Instead of repressing this mutiny, Story signaled the captains of the other ships aboard for a council of war. He told the assembled captains of the ongoing mutiny, and told them that he would be unable to make his ship take part in the fight. Many of the other captains then told of similar problems on their own ships, equally preventing their ships from taking part in

20664-435: The ranks of personnel of the old navy. But these people were among the most pro-Organist and anti-Patriot groups in the country, and therefore either unwilling to re-enlist, or if they did (because of economic necessity), they formed an unreliable element among the ship's crews. That unreliability was particularly important, because these NCOs and specialists formed the intermediary layer between officers and common seamen, and as

20828-522: The rearguard was thereby weakened, in the opinion of the commander of Delft , and many others, as this ship was one of the two most-lightly armed of the Batavian ships. Finally, two of the ships: Wassenaar and Haarlem , were notoriously onbezeild (difficult to handle, due to a bad trim), and therefore had difficulty maintaining their position in the line. This caused two "gaps" in the line, in front of both ships mentioned, which de Winter tried to correct, but not in time. These gaps were later exploited by

20992-594: The rebellion in their North American Thirteen Colonies . They attempted to "borrow" the mercenary Scots Brigade of the Dutch States Army for use in the Americas, in a similar manner to the Hessian and Brunswicker contingents they hired and deployed. This was strongly opposed by the Dutch sympathizers of the American Revolution, led by Baron Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol , who managed to convince

21156-448: The report put the main responsibility for the loss of the fleet on Lucas, the other officers were acquitted of dereliction of duty. Spoors' report was (with some redactions because of national security) published in 1798. Mutiny was not only a problem for the Batavian navy. In April and May 1797 (barely a half year after the mutiny at Saldanha Bay) the British fleet mutinied at Spithead and Nore . In both cases, politically motivated unrest

21320-735: The responsibility of the Batavian government after the VOC went bankrupt and was nationalized) in jeopardy. The government, therefore, felt constrained to mount an expedition in early 1796 that was charged with the reconquest of the Cape Colony, and subsequently would sail on to the Indies. A fleet, commanded by captain Engelbertus Lucas of three ships of the line, five frigates and an armed merchantman (with letters of marque ), 340 guns and 1972 men, set sail on 23 February 1796 (together with another fleet under Vice-Admiral Adriaan Braak, destined for

21484-445: The right of Visit and Search by belligerents. Initially, the stadtholder managed to prevent this, but strong diplomatic pressure by France, that selectively applied economic sanctions to Dutch cities supporting the stadtholder in this policy, forced his hand in November 1779. The States General now ordered him to provide the escorts and the first convoy, under command of Rear Admiral Lodewijk van Bylandt , sailed in December. This led to

21648-486: The right of free trade with part of the Dutch East Indies , which had been a major war aim for British merchants. The French also returned the other Dutch colonies they had recaptured from the British, including the ones in the West Indies (like St. Eustatius that had been taken by Admiral Rodney in February 1781, but was retaken by the French Admiral De Grasse on 27 November 1781). The war proved

21812-416: The rot by kicking the parlimentaires of his ship for this "unparlimentairy" conduct, and by punishing Capt. Van Capellen, but he did nothing. Story and Gilquin limited themselves to rejecting the ultimatum. The landing at Callantsoog started on 23 August, and eventually the defending Batavian troops under General Daendels were defeated, which prompted the latter to over-hastily order the strategic retreat of

21976-402: The ships of the line Revolutie and Dordrecht , and the frigate Castor . The mutineers, apparently led by their "deck officers" ( NCOs ), threatened to shoot the officers if they would open fire on the British ships. The British General James Craig , commanding the troops on land, meanwhile threatened to deny quarter to the Dutch crews in case attempts were made to beach or otherwise sabotage

22140-434: The ships were supposed to form the line of battle, on 6 July. But he issued a slightly different directive on 17 July, just for the case the fleet would be attacked while exiting the roadstead of Texel, and had to form the line of battle then. This nuance had not been adequately communicated by his staff, and this caused Rear-Admiral Bloys van Treslong to assume that the directive of 17 July was in force, while de Winter intended

22304-430: The ships, declared them "unready" to put out to sea. In this refusal, he was supported by the other flag officers. The incident caused a political storm that threatened to engulf the stadtholder himself, as he was responsible as commander-in-chief for both the state of readiness of the fleet and its strategic decisions (though the officers were tactically and operationally responsible, and could not decline responsibility for

22468-413: The ships. Among the officers made prisoner of war were, beside de Winter himself, cdr. Holland of Wassenaar (who like de Winter survived, though the British historian William James declared them both dead) and Rear-Admiral Meurer, and the captains of Delft , Alkmaar , and Gelijkheid who were all treated very gallantly by the British. They had earned the respect of the British, as James remarks Upon

22632-446: The ships. Lucas and his council of war then decided to capitulate more or less unconditionally, after Vice-Admiral George Elphinstone refused offers of conditional surrender. After the fleet had surrendered, the Batavian officers entreated the British to take possession of the ships as soon as possible, and to disarm the mutineers, as they were in fear of their lives. After the British had taken possession, all military discipline aboard

22796-519: The sixteen ships of the line, and one frigate. The losses could have been even larger if Duncan had pursued Story's ragtag fleet-remnant, but Duncan declared in his dispatch to the Secretary of the Admiralty of 13 October 1797 that he felt that he was getting too close to the Dutch shore and shallows to safely do this. The losses on both sides were relatively heavy. British historians are able to give

22960-523: The stadtholder being a grandson of King George II of Great Britain , but his opponents for this reason favoured France, and those opponents were strong enough in the States General of the Netherlands (the governing body of the Republic whose "first servant" the stadtholder was) to keep Dutch foreign policy neutral. Initially, the British considered the Dutch allies in their attempt to stamp out

23124-537: The summer aboard Vrijheid , Admiral de Winter's flagship, lost heart. The Commission on Foreign Affairs, therefore, decided to cancel the operation at the end of the summer, and ordered the debarkation of the troops on 9 September 1797. Five day earlier the Coup of 18 Fructidor took place in France, once again putting the radicals in the Directory in charge. For their allies in the Batavian Commission on Foreign Affairs this

23288-487: The troops manning the shore batteries at Den Helder (of course after spiking the guns ). Those batteries had recently been augmented to about 80 heavy pieces of artillery, that together with the artillery on the fleet in the roadstead, should have been adequate to defend the anchorage from a naval incursion. Four days before the British landing the Agent for the Navy, Spoors, had sent Story an order, allowing him to retreat to

23452-455: The war against France. The British invoked a number of old treaties (1678, 1689, 1716) to have the republic support them militarily, but as in the Seven Years' War , the Dutch government refused. After the French declared war on Britain, Amsterdam merchants also became heavily involved in the trade in naval stores with France. The French needed those supplies for their naval construction, but were prevented from obtaining those themselves, due to

23616-426: The war reached Sumatra, where both the Dutch and British companies had trading outposts. The directors of the British company at Fort Marlborough received instructions from Bombay to destroy all of the Dutch outposts on the west coast of Sumatra. Quite fortuitously, a fleet of five East Indiamen arrived not long after, and the directors seized the opportunity for action. Henry Botham, one of the directors, commandeered

23780-472: The weakness of the defending forces (that later proved incorrect), and of the unreliability of those forces, like the National Guard, and of course, the navy. It was therefore with some confidence that the Secretary for War Henry Dundas could instruct General Ralph Abercromby , the officer commanding the army forces in the invasion in a letter dated 5 August 1799, not only on the military, but also on

23944-414: The whole, the shattered hulls and blood-besmeared decks of the prizes, and the almost equally damaged appearance of the principally engaged ships among those that had taken them, gave decided proofs, that, although it had lain by so long, "Batavian prowess" still claimed the respect of an enemy and the admiration of the world. "Respect of the enemy" and "admiration of the world" were, however, cold comfort to

24108-419: The wind turned southwest in the morning of 30 August, enabling the British fleet to enter the Texel roadstead and to sail toward the Batavian fleet in the Vlieter , leaving Story no other options than to defend an unfavorable position, or to surrender. Meanwhile the crews on several of the ships had given indications of disaffection and disobedience, that did not yet amount to mutiny (except on Washington , where

24272-420: Was suppressed in 1787 by Prussian and British intervention. The Patriots were driven abroad, but returned in 1795 with the help of the French revolutionary armies and established a Batavian Republic in place of the old Dutch Republic. The Low Countries remained central to British strategic thinking, and they sent expeditionary forces to the Netherlands in 1793, 1799, and 1809. The war caused severe damage to

24436-641: Was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic . The war, contemporary with the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on the legality and conduct of Dutch trade with Britain's enemies in that war. Although the Dutch Republic did not enter into a formal alliance with the rebelling American colonies and their allies, American ambassador (and future president ) John Adams managed to establish diplomatic relations with

24600-414: Was an extra motivation to have the fleet in the Texel "do something, anything" to promote the cause of Revolution and harm the cause of Reaction, and to erase the shame of Saldanha Bay. The plan this time was to have the fleet in the Texel make a sortie with the objective of freeing the ship of the line Kortenaer , that (together with the frigate Scipio ) was blockaded in the roadstead of Hellevoetsluis by

24764-466: Was appointed (Pieter Glavimans, the superintendent of the Rotterdam shipyard). The criminal justice system in the navy was put in the hands of a Provost marshal for the navy. A commission for Pilotage was formed under direct control of the Naval Affairs Committee, and an officer charged with surveying the harbors and coastal waters and publishing naval charts. Finally, the 1702 Articles of War for

24928-437: Was as gasoline on the already raging fire of the fight between Unitarists and Federalists for the soul of the Batavian Republic. The tax was adopted on 2 December 1797, but the fight exacerbated the already strained relations between "radicals" and "conservatives", which eventually led to the Coup of 21–22 January 1798. The Committee for Naval Affairs took the necessary steps to rebuild the navy. The ships that had returned to

25092-544: Was behind the mutinies. In the Dutch case, it was the adherents of the conservative, even reactionary, ideology of Organism, who proved to be unreliable. In the British case, on the other hand, the initiative for the mutinies came from the partisans of the ideas of the French Revolution . Those ideas also inspired revolutionaries in Ireland, who already in 1796 appealed to the French Directory to support

25256-524: Was cited as proof by the British of the non-neutral conduct of the Dutch. Dutch naval power had been in decline since 1712. The fleet had been long neglected, and the Dutch navy, having only 20 ships of the line at the start of the conflict, was no match for the British Royal Navy . Although the States General had decided on a substantial expansion of the fleet in 1779, just before the fateful decision to offer limited convoys, and had even voted

25420-526: Was completely devastated by him. He proved himself especially vengeful against the Jewish merchants on the island. All goods on the island were confiscated and all merchants, Dutch, American, French, even British, deported. Part of the loot was auctioned off on the spot, but an appreciable amount was put on a convoy destined for Britain. However, much of the convoy was captured in the English Channel by

25584-503: Was eventually divided into two ragged divisions, one of nine ships total, under Rear-Admiral Onslow in HMS Monarch , to windward of the British formation, and one consisting of the remaining British ships under Admiral Duncan, in HMS Venerable , to the British lee, made no real difference to the outcome of the battle. Onslow fell onto the Batavian rearguard, apparently aiming for Admiral Reintjes' flag in Jupiter , as he went through

25748-476: Was held after the battle this already was the moment on which the battle was lost for de Winter, as from this time on his line of battle started to unravel, leading to a melee , which the line of battle, as a tactical formation was designed to prevent. Because in a melee the enemy could deal with each ship at his leisure, creating "local superiority of forces" by surrounding the victims with two or more ships, and overwhelming them with broadsides from all sides. This

25912-522: Was kept in the roadstead by the seasonal westerly winds, which prevented it from sailing out. In this frustrating time interval the Channel squadron of Admiral Adam Duncan became operational again after the spring mutinies; Great Britain amassed an army of 80,000 troops in Ireland; General Lazare Hoche , the great promoter of the plan for the invasion died; and the Irish revolutionary Wolfe Tone , who spent

26076-491: Was later held against Story at his court-martial, because it allowed the parlimentaires to spy out the strengths and weaknesses of the fleet, and even contact members of crews. The latter was allowed to happen when the parlimentaires had to wait for the arrival of the officer commanding the shore batteries at Den Helder, col. Gilquin, who Maitland wanted to hand the ultimatum to in person. Cap. Van Capellen even accompanied them on board Washington , allowed them to address members of

26240-403: Was mounted, a commission of notables promoted enlistment, and most importantly, financial incentives were given or at least promised, and this finally got the stream of enlistees going, so that in the Spring of 1796 the fleet was sufficiently manned, to at least put the ships to sea. But then the government did something in March 1796 that undermined the morale of the new crews. Up to that moment,

26404-399: Was not keen on, either), the British government cited a number of grievances that were ostensibly unrelated to the Dutch accession to the league. One of these was the shelter the Dutch had (reluctantly) given to the American privateer John Paul Jones in 1779. More importantly, much was made of a draft treaty of commerce, secretly negotiated between the Amsterdam banker Jean de Neufville and

26568-530: Was re-victualing in Yarmouth with his fleet of about equal strength, but he soon returned to the Texel in the expectation that de Winter would not be too far away. In the morning of October 11 the two fleets discovered each other on the latitude of the village of Camperduin on the Dutch coast. The wind was NW and the weather blustery. Duncan had the weather gage which gave him a distinct tactical advantage . De Winter decided that in view of his instructions from

26732-539: Was rejected. A few years later, he was more successful with the establishment of a corps of gunners. Plans for establishing a corps of midshipmen, to revise the articles of war for the navy, and to have the state pay for the meals of the crews (instead of charging them for food) did not go anywhere. The officers and crews of the navy were experienced and professional. However, the officers lacked knowledge of naval tactics . Officers like Admiral Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen published theoretical works to remedy this situation in

26896-473: Was understandably very dubious about this rash command, but when the Commission waved away his objections, he started to make serious preparations to execute it. But again, adverse winds prevented the immediate sailing of his fleet of sixteen ships of the line and ten frigates and brigs. This prompted an acrimonious exchange of express-letters between the Commission and the Admiral, in which the Commission ordered

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