The English Parliament had passed the first of the Navigation Acts in October 1651, aimed at hampering the shipping of the highly trade-dependent Dutch. Agitation among the Dutch merchants had been further increased by George Ayscue's capture in early 1652 of 27 Dutch ships trading with the royalist colony of Barbados in contravention of an embargo. Both sides had begun to prepare for war, but conflict might have been delayed if not for an unfortunate encounter on 29 May 1652 (19 May in the Julian calendar then in use in England) near the Straits of Dover between a Dutch convoy escorted by 40 ships under Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp and an English fleet of 25 ships under General-at-Sea Robert Blake.
Battle
Prior to the battle, Oliver Cromwell had issued an ordinance requiring all foreign warships in the North Sea or English Channel to lower their flag in salute when encountering ships of the English navy. Combined with Ayscue's seizure of the Dutch merchantmen trading with Barbados, this led to a rapid deterioration in Anglo-Dutch relations. Tromp was subsequently given orders to protect Dutch commerce while keeping watch over the English navy. On 19 May 1652, Tromp was cruising in the English Channel with a fleet of forty ships between Nieuport and the mouth of the Meuse River. General at Sea Robert Blake was lying in Dover Roads with fifteen warships, with eight others were anchored in Bourne in the Downs.[1]
While on patrol, Tromp received orders from a dispatch ketch to attack Blake's fleet, and had not struck his flag in salute. Blake, aboard his flagship James, assumed Tromp had received orders to commence battle and fired two warning shots. A defiant Tromp hoisted a red battle flag,[2] which prompted James to fire a third shot, hitting Tromp's ship Brederode and wounding a number of its crew. This was followed with Tromp returning fire with a warning broadside from Brederode. James in turn fired a broadside and a battle that would last five hours ensued.[3] Tromp immediately engaged Blake's flag ship where the two ships exchanged broadsides as they passed one another.
While tacking to turn and fire another broadside, Brederode came into violent contact with Bonaventure, which grappled with the Brederode and began boarding it. During the fierce melee that followed, Tromp's crew forced the attackers back on to their own ship. At this time, the English ship Garland came along to the other side of Brederode, placing it between Bonaventure and Garland. Johan Evertsen, now aware of Tromp's plight, quickly came to assist, placing his ship directly alongside Bonavture and firing broadsides which severed all her masts, after which Evertsen's crew boarded her and engaged in hand-to-hand fighting before being beaten back.[4] The fighting continued until nightfall, where both sides withdrew, the battle having no distinct victor.[5] The ships of Tromp and Evertsen divided their prisoners between them and sailed back toward Texel, with Blake, with his flagship in tow making his way to Dover.[5][6][7]
Aftermath
Both fleets were damaged, but as darkness fell the Dutch fleet withdrew in a defensive line to protect the convoy, and the English captured two Dutch stragglers: Sint Laurens, which was taken back by them but not used, and Sint Maria, which was abandoned in a sinking condition and later made its way to the Netherlands. Tromp then offered his excuses to Blake and asked for the return of the prize, but this was refused by Blake.
War was declared by the Commonwealth of England on 8 July 1652.
[5][8]
^During this period in English history dates of events are usually recorded in the Julian calendar, while those the Netherlands are recorded in the Gregorian calendar. In this article dates are in the Julian calendar with the start of the year adjusted to 1 January (see Old Style and New Style dates).
