THE NAVY OF THE RESTORATION 



The Battle of Lowestoft. 



Hostilities proper commenced with the capture of an Anglo- 

 Hamburg convoy by the Dutch, which brought a considerable value 

 into their coffers and gave them much needed encouragement at the 

 outbreak of war. At the same time it handicapped us badly because 

 for the outfit of our fleet we were very largely dependent upon the 

 naval stores that were taken. The Duke of York's squadrons which 

 had come in for refit were immediately hurried to sea again and had 

 they been possessed of a better intelligence service they would have 

 discovered that the Dutch Fleet was not by any means perfect and that 

 the quality of both ships and men was very suspect by their Admiralty. 

 The British Fleet was anchored in Southwold when it was reported that 

 the enemy was off Lowestoft and the Duke immediately weighed to 

 engage. The Dutch Fleet was very scattered, but Obdam collected 

 them skilfully to meet the British attack which came up with Prince 

 Rupert in the van, the Duke of York in the centre and the Earl of Sand- 

 wich (Montague) in the rear. At the very outset the battle degenerated 

 into a melee, but the British and Dutch flagships singled one another 

 out and commenced a hammer-and-tongs action in the old style. 

 Things were going very badly for the Duke of York when the Dutch 

 flagship suddenly blew up and only five men out of her crew of over 

 four hundred escaped. The Dutch ascribed this disaster to treachery 

 but there is little doubt that it was an accident. After this they had 

 but little chance and Sandwich completed their discomfiture. The 

 fact that the Duke did not follow up the victory as he might have done 

 and so convert the retirement into a rout, caused very considerable 

 comment in England, for it was felt that had he possessed the energy 

 of some of his subordinates the war might have been ended at once. 

 The Campaign of 1666. 



The latter part of 1665 was uneventful on account of the ravages 

 of the Plague in London, but in the following year preparations were 

 made to renew the war at sea with vigour. The French were helping 

 the Dutch and this caused a most unhappy division of our fleet. It was 

 understood that a French squadron was coming up from the Mediter- 

 ranean and accordingly Prince Rupert guarded the Channel while 

 Monck, by now the Duke of Albemarle, was in the Downs. The alarm 

 was false, but the wind that took the Prince down Channel and made it 

 difficult for him to return brought De Ruyter and Cornells Tromp down 

 on to the Duke of Albemarle. He was in no way loath to fight and 

 having the weather gage he attacked with vigour, but unfortunately in 

 this case it was a disadvantage for as his ships heeled it became 

 impossible to fight their lower-deck guns on account of flooding the 

 ships. The first day ended in some of the British ships being cut off 

 and being forced to surrender after sustaining a tremendous hammering. 

 In spite of this the fight was not altogether against us, for many of the 

 Dutch ships were badly damaged and their superior force had quite 

 failed to subdue the British. So well did we fight that on the second 



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