THE DUTCH WAR 



the shore batteries that had been erected round about Deal gave very 

 welcome support to the British who were finally able to beat off the 

 attack. Turning North to destroy Blake, Tromp's fleet was scattered 

 by a gale and he returned home to be disgraced by the republic. 



De Ruyter. 



In Tromp's place Michiel de Ruyter, the greatest seaman 

 of his day, was appointed Admiral. In him the Dutch certainly had a 

 wonderful leader and his virtues almost make one forget the injustice 

 done to Tromp. At that time, as on many other occasions in its 

 history, the Dutch Navy was very severely handicapped by politics and 

 De Ruyter was always very careful to keep out of them, at least in con- 

 nection with his public work. His first action was against Ayscue off 

 Plymouth in August, 1652, when he was escorting a big fleet of merchant- 

 men clear of the Channel. A ding-dong battle ensued which appears 

 to have been nothing better than a series of stubbornly contested single- 

 ship actions, but De Ruyter certainly got the better of the day by being 

 able to continue his work of convoying the merchantmen while the 

 British were too badly damaged to pursue. Our Rear-Admiral Pack 

 was killed by a round shot and was a heavy loss to the Fleet. Almost 

 immediately afterwards Ayscue was relieved, which appears to have 

 been as much an injustice as was Tromp's case, but he had a good deal 

 of advisory work afterwards and his undoubted ability was not 

 altogether lost. Penn was given command of the Western Squadron 

 and although he only had half the Dutch force he was quite willing to 

 fight them, but De Ruyter managed to avoid the action. 



Blake and the French. 



Although it would appear that we had our hands full with the Dutch 

 in the West, Blake determined to aim a blow at Dunkirk as being the 

 base of most of the French privateers. The Spanish were attacking 

 the town and a French squadron was on its way there with a relieving 

 army and stores. Blake engaged this squadron and routed it, with the 

 result that almost immediately afterwards the town fell to the Spanish 

 and we were relieved of anxiety on this score for a time. 



The Mediterranean Situation. 



The fact that the greater part of the war at sea was centred round 

 home waters caused the administration to neglect the Mediterranean, 

 where our fleet was vastly inferior to that of the Dutch and where we 

 had big interests to protect. For a long time it was a matter of dodging 

 round the neutral ports with a minor action when opportunity offered, 

 but in 1652 Admiral Badiley, who was supposed to have the assistance 

 of Appleton, engaged a superior Dutch fleet off Elbe. Appleton 

 neither came out of port nor sent his ships to relieve his hard-pressed 

 consorts, with the result that H.M.S. Phoenix was lost and the other 

 three ships of the squadron badly mauled. The loss of the Phoenix was 

 a very sad blow to British pride and accordingly it was determined to 

 cut her out although she was lying at Leghorn and should have been 



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