Raid on the Medway
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Raid on the Medway | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War | |||||||
|
|||||||
| Combatants | |||||||
| England | Dutch Republic | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| Prince Rupert of the Rhine George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle |
Michiel de Ruyter Willem Joseph van Ghent Cornelis de Witt |
||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| several ships, garrisons of the forts Upnor and Sheerness | about 60 ships; 1500 marines | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| 13 English ships lost, Unity and Royal Charles captured | none | ||||||
The Raid on the Medway, sometimes called the Battle of Medway or the Battle of Chatham, was a successful Dutch attack on the largest English naval ships, laid up in the dockyards of their main naval base Chatham, that took place in June 1667 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch, under nominal command of Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, bombarded and captured Sheerness, went up the River Thames to Gravesend, then up the River Medway to Chatham, where they burnt three capital ships and ten lesser naval vessels and towed away the Unity and the Royal Charles, pride and normal flagship of the English fleet. It is generally considered the largest Dutch naval victory in history and the worst English naval defeat. The raid led to a quick end to the war and a favourable peace for the Dutch.
Contents |
[edit] Prelude
English king Charles II's active fleet had already been reduced to accommodate the restrictions of recent expenditure with the "big ships" remaining laid up, so the Dutch seized their opportunity well. They had had earlier plans for such an attack in 1666 after the Four Days Battle but were prevented from carrying them out by their defeat in the St James's Day Battle. The mastermind behind the plan was the leading Dutch politician Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt. His brother Cornelis de Witt accompanied the fleet to supervise. Peace negotiations were already in progress at Breda since March, but Charles tried to procrastinate the signing of peace, hoping to improve his position through secret French assistance, so De Witt thought it best to end the war quickly with a clear Dutch victory, which of course might lead to more favourable terms. Most Dutch flag officers had strong doubts about the feasibility of an attack, fearing the treacherous shoals in the Thames estuary, but they obeyed orders nevertheless. The Dutch made use of two defected English pilots, one a dissenter (a "fanatic"), the other a smuggler having fled English justice.
[edit] The Raid
[edit] The Dutch approach
Late May the squadrons of the Admiralties of Rotterdam, Amsterdam and the Northern Quarter joined off the Dutch coast in the Schooneveld. Hearing that the squadrons of Frisia and Zealand weren't yet ready because of recruiting problems (press-ganging was forbidden in the Republic), De Ruyter departed for the Thames on 4 June (Old Style) with about sixty frigates or ships-of-the-line and twelve fireships, when the wind turned to the east.
On 6 June a fog bank was blown away and revealed the Dutch task force, sailing into the mouth of the Thames. On 7 June Cornelis de Witt revealed his secret instructions from the States-General in the presence of all commanders. There were so many objections, while De Ruyter's only substantial contribution to the discussion was "bevelen zijn bevelen "("orders are orders"), that Cornelis, after retiring to his cabin late in the night, wrote in his daily report he didn't feel at all sure that he would be obeyed. The next day it transpired however that most officers were in for a bit of adventure; they had just given their professional opinion for the record so they could blame the politicians should the whole enterprise end in disaster. That day an attempt was made to capture a fleet of twenty English merchantmen seen higher up the Thames in the direction of London, but this failed.
The attack caught the English unawares. No serious preparations had been made for such an eventuality, although there had been ample warning from the extensive English spy network. Sir William Coventry declared that a Dutch landing was unlikely. There was no clear line of command with most responsible authorities giving hasty orders without bothering to coordinate them first. As a result there was much confusion. Charles didn't take matters into his own hands, deferring mostly to the opinion of others. English morale was low. Not having been paid for months or even years, most sailors and soldiers were less than enthusiastic to risk their lives. England had only a small army and the few available units were dispersed as Dutch intentions were unclear. This explains why no effective countermeasures were taken though it took the Dutch about five days to reach Chatham, slowly manoeuvring through the shoals, leaving the heavier vessels behind as a covering force. They could only advance in jumps when the tide was favourable.
After raising the alarm on 6 June at Chatham Dockyard, Commissioner Peter Pett seems not to have taken any further action until 9 June when, late in the afternoon, a fleet of about thirty Dutch ships were sighted in the Thames off Sheerness. At this point the Commissioner immediately sought assistance from the Admiralty sending a pessimistic message to the Navy Board, lamenting the absence of Navy senior officials whose help and advice he believed he needed. The thirty ships were those of Van Ghent's squadron of frigates. Colonel and Lieutenant-Admiral Willem Joseph van Ghent, on the Agatha, was the real commander of the Dutch force and he had done all the operational planning. The Dutch fleet carried about a thousand marines (of the Dutch Marine Corps, the first to be specialised in amphibious operations), and landing parties were dispatched on Canvey Island in Essex and opposite on the Kent side at Sheerness. These men had strict orders not to plunder, as the Dutch wanted to shame the British whose troops had sacked Terschelling during Holmes's Bonfire in August 1666. Nevertheless the crew of captain Jan van Brakel couldn't control themselves. They were driven off by English militia and under threat of severe punishment when returning to the Dutch fleet. Van Brakel offered to lead the attack the next day to avoid the penalty.
Sir Edward Spragge, the famous Vice-Admiral, learned on 9 June that a Dutch raiding party had come ashore on the Isle of Grain (a peninsula where the river Medway in Kent, meets the River Thames). Musketeers from the Sheerness garrison opposite were sent to investigate.
The King only on 10 June instructed George Monck, Duke of Albemarle to go to Chatham to take charge of matters and ordered Prince Rupert to organize the defences at Woolwich a full three days later.
As events progressed, two members of the Navy Board, Sir John Mennes and Lord Henry Brouncker, travelled to Chatham, followed on 11 June (Old Style) by the Duke of Albemarle. When Albemarle arrived he reported that he could find only twelve of the eight hundred dockyard men expected.
[edit] The attack
The Dutch fleet arrived at the Isle of Sheppey on 10 June, and launched an attack on the incomplete Sheerness Fort. Captain Jan van Brakel in Vrede, followed by two other men-of-war, sailed as close to the fort as possible to engage it with cannon fire. Sir Edward Spragge was in command of the ships at anchor in the Medway and those off Sheerness, but the only ship able to defend against the Dutch was the frigate Unity which was stationed off the fort.
Unity was supported by a number of ketches and fire ships at Garrison Point, and by the fort where sixteen guns had been hastily placed. Unity fired one broadside, but then, when attacked by a Dutch fireship, she withdrew up the Medway, followed by the English fireships and ketches. The Dutch fired on on the fort; two men were hit. It then transpired that no surgeon was available and most soldiers deserted. Seven remained but their position became untenable when some 800 Dutch marines landed about a mile away. With Sheerness thus lost, its guns being captured by the Dutch and the building blown up, Spragge sailed up river on his yacht the Henrietta, for Chatham. In that place now many officers were assembled: Spragge himself, later also Monck and several men of the admiralty board. All gave orders countermanding those of the others so that utter confusion reigned.
Pett proposed that several big and smaller ships be sunk in Upnor Reach near Upnor Castle, presenting another barrier to the Dutch should they break through the chain at Gillingham. The defensive chain placed across the river had been lying practically nine feet (about 3 meter) under the water between its stages owing to its weight. It was tried to raise it by placing stages under it closer to the shore. River defences were hastily improvised with 'blockships' sunk, and the chain across the river was guarded by batteries. This way the large HMS Golden Phoenix and HMS House of Sweden (the former VOC - ships Gulden Phenix and Huis van Swieten) and HMS Welcome and HMS Leicester were lost. The smaller Constant John, Unicorn and John and Sarah were sunk to block the channel in front of the chain near the Musselbank; when this was shown to be insufficient they were joined by the Barbados Merchant, Dolphin, Edward and Eve, Hind and Fortune. To do so the men first intended for the warships to be protected were used, so the most valuable ships were basically without crews.
The next day, 11 June, the positions of Charles V and Matthias (former Dutch merchants Carolus Quintus and Geldersche Ruyter), just above the chain were adjusted to enable them to bring their broadsides to bear upon it. Monmouth was also moored above the chain, positioned so that she could bring her guns to bear on the space between Charles V and Matthias. The Marmaduke and the Norway Merchant were sunk off below the chain; the large Sancta Maria (former VOC-ship Slot van Honingen of 70 cannon) foundered while being moved for the same purpose. Meanwhile the first Dutch frigates to arrive had already begun to move away the Edward and Eve, clearing a channel by nightfall.
Van Ghent's squadron now advanced up the Medway on 12 June passing Upnor Castle with scant opposition and attacking any ships lying above that point; Unity was taken by Van Brakel by assault, the Sancta Maria, Mathias and Charles V burnt. The fireship Pro Patria broke through the chain (or sailed over it according to some historians, distrusting the more spectacular traditional version of events), the stages of which were soon after destroyed by Dutch engineers. Royal Charles, abandoned by its skeleton crew, was then captured and later carried off to the Netherlands. The jack was struck while a trumpeter played "Joan's placket is torn". Only the Monmouth escaped. Seeing the disaster Monck ordered all sixteen remaining warships further up to be sunk off to prevent them from being captured, making for a total of about thirty ships deliberately sunk by the English themselves. As Andrew Marvell satirized:
- Of all our navy none should now survive,
- But that the ships themselves were taught to dive
The following day, 13 June, the whole of the Thames side as far up as London was in a panic — some spread the rumour that the Dutch were in the process of transporting a French army from Dunkirk for a full-scale invasion — and many wealthy citizens fled the city, taking their most valuable possessions with them. The Dutch continued their advance into the Chatham docks. Some of the finest vessels in the navy, including the heavy Royal James, Loyal London and Royal Oak, already sunk to prevent capture, now perished by fire, when Dutch fire ships sailed into the dockyards under English fire from Upnor Castle. The English crews abandoned their half-flooded ships, mostly without a fight. The raid thus cost the English four of their remaining eight ships with more than 75 cannon. Three of the four largest "big ships" of the navy were lost. The remaining "big ship", Royal Sovereign (the former HMS Sovereign of the Seas rebuilt as a two-decker), was preserved due to its being at Portsmouth at the time. De Ruyter now joined Van Ghent's squadron in person.
[edit] Account by Samuel Pepys
The following day Samuel Pepys wrote of the capture of Royal Charles, "...which Pett should have carried up higher by our several orders, and deserves therefore to be hanged for not doing it." He later conceded that impression given him by naval captains that "...nothing but carelessness lost the Royal Charles, for they might have saved her ... if they ... had but boats, and that the want of boats plainly lost all the other ships." On the morning of 11 June the Royal Charles had been moved higher up the river with the help of a pilot but had remained exposed at her moorings for want of the boats and crews Pett needed to remove her, these having been sent on other tasks. Some shipwrights with their boats and crews were allocated to carry out the operation which was ordered by Pett and during the morning of 11 June, with Royal James taken up to a new position just above Upnor Castle.
It was commonly understood that Charles himself was at fault for his failure to prepare the fleet. Pepys wrote "they did in open streets yesterday at Westminster, cry, 'A Parliament! a Parliament!'; and I do believe it will cost blood to answer for these miscarriages."
Pepys also comments on the morale of the English sailors: "[he] did hear many Englishmen aboard the Dutch ships speaking to one another in English, and that they did cry and say: We did heretofore fight for tickets; now we fight for dollars! and did ask how such and such a one did, and would commend themselves to them: which is a sad consideration".
Significantly upon the following day "Word was brought me that Commissioner Pett is brought to the Tower and there laid up close prisoner which puts me into a fright, lest they may do the same with us as they do with him. This puts me upon hastening what I am doing with my people, and collecting out of my papers our defence" (Pepys). Pett was bailed at £5,000 and deprived of his office whilst those who had ignored his earlier warnings quietly escaped any blame. Pett was thus compelled to defend his own actions and stood alone, discredited for the negligence of others. The Dutch Admiral De Ruyter had after all captured Sheerness Fort a full two days prior to his invasion of the Medway, before he broke through the heavy chain that was strung across the river representing its meagre outer defences.
Pepys wrote "On 13 June, when Dutch frigates and sloops led the Fleet up the river, Upnor Castle was fired upon and the Castle batteries returned the ships' fire. The Dutch lost ten ships, but their advance was not halted and four English ships lying of Upnor Castle were sunk or burnt. The Dutch sailed on towards Rochester, where the inhabitants had fled into the countryside." Pepys visited the Castle on behalf of the Admiralty after the engagement and was forced to concede that the fort had been undergunned and -garrisoned. Pepys' entry about the ten Dutch ships lost was of course more inspired by hope than by facts: total Dutch losses during the whole raid were about fifty casualties - and no frigates or ships of the line at all.
[edit] The Dutch withdraw
As he feared a stiffening English resistance, Cornelis de Witt decided to forego a further penetration and withdraw, towing the Royal Charles along as a war trophy. This decision saved the sunk off capital ships HMS Royal Katherine, Unicorn and St George. However on 14 June Dutch demolition teams rowed on boats to any ship they could reach to burn it down as much as they could. Now the English villages were plundered - by their own troops. The Dutch fleet, after celebrating by collectively thanking God for "a great victory in a just war in self-defence" tried to repeat its success by attacking several other ports on the English east coast but was repelled each time. After a month peace was signed. Pepys wrote on 29 July 1667: "Thus in all things, in wisdom, courage, force, knowledge of our own streams, and success, the Dutch have the best of us, and do end the war with victory on their side".
The Royal James, Oak and Loyal London were in the end salvaged and rebuilt, but with great cost; when London refused to share in it, Charles had the name of the latter ship changed into a simple London.
In a discreet place in the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam the transom of the Royal Charles, with the Lion and Unicorn and the inscription Dieu et Mon Droit is still on display.
[edit] Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling dedicated a poem to these events, giving a not altogether historically correct view of them (the poem was written approximately two centuries after the events):
- If wars were won by feasting,
- Or victory by song,
- Or safety found, by sleeping sound
- How England would be strong!
- But honour and dominion
- Are not maintained so,
- They’re only got by sword and shot
- And this the Dutchmen know!
- The moneys that should feed us
- You spend on your delight,
- How can you then, have sailor-men
- To aid you in your fight?
- Our fish and cheese are rotten,
- Which makes the scurvy grow –
- We cannot serve you if we starve,:
- And this the Dutchmen know!
- Our ships in every harbour
- Be neither whole nor sound,
- And when we seek to mend a leak,
- No Oakum can be found,
- Or, if it is, the caulkers,
- And carpenters also,
- For lack of pay have gone away,
- And this the Dutchmen know!
- Mere powder, guns and bullets,
- we scarce can get at all;
- Their price was spent in merriment
- And revel at Whitehall,
- While we in tattered doublets
- From ship to ship must row,
- Beseeching friends for odds and ends –
- And this the Dutchmen know!
- No King will heed our warnings,
- No Court will pay our claims –
- Our King and Court for their disport
- Do sell the very Thames!
- For, now De Ruyter’s topsails
- Off naked Chatham show,
- We dare not meet him with our fleet –
- And this the Dutchmen know!
