CHAPTER XXIV 



BROOM AND WHIPLASH 



MEN of the North Sea bore the burden of the bloody 

 battles which for twenty years were fought between the 

 Dutch and English for dominion of the ocean. No 

 fights were fiercer than those which took place when the 

 two countries were republics, and the leaders of the 

 combatants on each side were men like Blake and 

 Tromp. 



On and off, throughout that long period of bitterness 

 and hostilities, the North Sea bore the fleets of England 

 and Holland. Some of the officers and most of the men 

 doubtless knew little of, and cared less for, some of the 

 causes of the war ; but most of the crews were either 

 fishermen or understood the fisheries, and as one of the 

 great grievances of the English was that Dutch craft 

 came and flagrantly fished in English waters and yet 

 refused to pay to England the tax of the tenth herring 

 which was claimed, there was no lack of motive for 

 ferocious fighting. Only the fury of trade rivalry and 

 business jealousy could have supported the opponents in 

 their sufferings and privations. 



The thoroughness of the prevailing hatred is shown 

 by many of the contemporary Dutch and English 

 accounts of the actions. At home nothing was too 



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