404 



THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



had sent a man up to strike his flag ; he was preparing to send 

 his boat to Blake after the second gun was fired to ask him 

 the reason of his firing, and so forth. But the Dutch admiral 

 well knew the custom of the narrow sea, and had no n 

 to ask Blake the reason of his firing across his bows. 1 

 When the nature of his instructions with reference to salut- 

 ing is considered, along with his memorandum and the dis- 

 cussions connected with it, his action before Dover Castle 

 on the day before, and the variation in his own subsequent 

 accounts of his intentions and proceedings, the inference is 

 strong that he had resolved not to strike to the weaker 

 fleet of the Commonwealth. 



In London the news of the battle aroused intense indigna- 

 tion. It was everywhere believed that Tromp had deliberately 

 attacked the English fleet, an opinion confirmed by the com- 

 missioners, of whom Cromwell was one, sent to Dover to 

 inquire into the facts. The meeting of Joris van der Saen 

 with Tromp, which had been seen from the English fleet, was 

 viewed in a sinister light. The little Dutch ship was thought 

 to have carried instructions from the States for Tromp to make 

 the attack. The Parliament thought so also : " They found too 

 much cause," they said, " to believe that the Lords the States- 

 General of the United Provinces have an intention by force to 

 usurp the known rights of England in the seas, to destroy the 

 fleets that are, under God, their walls and bulwarks, and there- 



1 See his memorandum, p. 398. Tromp wrote to Blake from Calais four days 

 afterwards ( ay ), saying he had intended to salute him, and asking for the 



restoration of a ship taken. In reply Blake accused him of having sought out the 

 English fleet, and " instead of performing those usual respects which of right 

 belong unto them, and which yourself have often done," had attacked him. In 

 The Ansioer of the Parliament, p. 11, it is said that one of the Dutch captains who 

 had been taken prisoner stated that when he struck to some English men-of-war 

 at Calais a few weeks before, Tromp asked him "why he did strike sail to them," 

 saying, " Were you not as strong as they ? And being so, why were you afraid ? " 

 As the above-mentioned letter from Tromp to Blake is given by Gardiner (Letters 

 and Papers, i. 216) only as "translated from a Dutch translation of the French 

 original," an authenticated copy of the French original is given in Appendix M, 

 from Tideman (De Zee Setwist, App. C, p. 202). It is from the archives at The 

 Hague (Lias Engeland, 1652 (Copie)), and is endorsed by Job. Corn. Rhees, and 

 again by N. Ruysch, as identical with the authentic copy. The original of Blake's 

 reply is also given. It is printed by Gardiner as " retranslated from the Dutch 

 translation" (ibid., i. 257), and differs in some points from the original. 



