Battle of Camperdown

On a stormy sea beneath towering clouds, a number of sailing warships battle. In the foreground are three ships, two to the right of the frame bridged by clouds of smoke and the mainmast of the far right ship, which bears a prominent horizontally striped flag is toppling. To the left of the frame a third ship drifts as flames leap from its deck.

The Battle of Camperdown, 11 October 1797, Thomas Whitcombe, 1798, National Maritime Museum. The painting shows the British flagship Venerable engaged with the Dutch flagship Vrijheid.

Date	11 October 1797
Location	North Sea, off Camperduin, Holland, 52°45′N 4°12′E / 52.750°N 4.200°E / 52.750; 4.200
Result	Decisive British victory

Belligerents

Great Britain

Batavian Republic

Commanders and leaders

Admiral Adam Duncan

Vice-Admiral Jan de Winter

Strength

14 ships of the line
4 frigates
6 sloops

11 ships of the line
8 frigates
7 sloops

Casualties and losses

203 killed
622 wounded

540 killed
620 wounded
7 ships of the line captured
4 frigates captured

The Battle of Camperdown (known in Dutch as the Zeeslag bij Kamperduin) was a major naval action fought on 11 October 1797, between the British North Sea Fleet under Admiral Adam Duncan and a Dutch Navy fleet under Vice-Admiral Jan de Winter. The battle was the most significant action between British and Dutch forces during the French Revolutionary Wars and resulted in a complete victory for the British, who captured eleven Dutch ships without losing any of their own. In 1795, the Dutch Republic had been overrun by the army of the French Republic and had been reorganised into the Batavian Republic, a French client state. In early 1797, after the French Atlantic Fleet had suffered heavy losses in a disastrous winter campaign, the Dutch fleet was ordered to reinforce the French at Brest. The rendezvous never occurred; the continental allies failed to capitalise on the Spithead and Nore mutinies that paralysed the British Channel forces and North Sea fleets during the spring of 1797.

By September, the Dutch fleet under De Winter were blockaded within their harbour in the Texel by the British North Sea fleet under Duncan. At the start of October, Duncan was forced to return to Yarmouth for supplies and De Winter used the opportunity to conduct a brief raid into the North Sea. When the Dutch fleet returned to the Dutch coast on 11 October, Duncan was waiting, and intercepted De Winter off the coastal village of Camperduin. Attacking the Dutch line of battle in two loose groups, Duncan's ships broke through at the rear and and were subsequently engaged by Dutch frigates lined up on the other side. The battle split into two melees, one to south, or leeward, where the more numerous British overwhelmed the Dutch rear, and one to the north, or windward, where a more evenly matched exchange centred on the battling flagships. As the Dutch fleet attempted to reach shallower waters in an effort to escape the British attack, the British leeward division joined the windward combat and eventually forced the surrender of the Dutch flagship Vrijheid and ten other ships.

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Wikipedia