310 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



Sir John were sung in some verses which also indicated 

 the bitterness of the feeling between the two nations, for 

 the poet, in recording Lawson's death, said that his 



"... valour beyond fate did go, 

 And still fights Opdam in the lake below." 



The July fight was that of 1666, when the grim 

 Monk and Prince Rupert fell upon the Dutch fleet 

 under De Ruyter and Tromp, routing the enemy and 

 killing Tromp. The fight was long and fierce, and De 

 Ruyter had the bitterness of being deserted by some of 

 his chief officers. Yet he maintained the struggle until 

 he found that the seven ships which were left to him 

 were surrounded by three times that number of the 

 English. The English were in crescent formation, and 

 pressed heavily upon the stubborn Dutchmen. 



Monk, resolved at all costs to crush his opponent, 

 drove hard upon De Ruyter's flagship and tried to 

 smash him with the firing of a united broadside. It was 

 at this apparently hopeless moment that De Ruyter 

 despairingly exclaimed, "How wretched am I, that 

 among so many thousand balls, not one will bring me 

 death ! " He, however, quickly recovered, and with- 

 drew the remnant of his shattered force to Walcheren. 

 In executing that retreat he won renown as great as 

 victory would have given him. 



Six years later, at. Solebay, De Ruyter almost had 

 his complete revenge. At the head of more than a 

 hundred sail he surprised, on 28th May 1672, the 

 combined English and French fleets of much larger 

 force than his own, as they were lying at anchor. De 

 Ruyter first fell on the French, then, as they drew out 



