Battle of Dungeness

Battle of Dungeness
Part of First Anglo-Dutch War
Brederode entangled with the Garland and Anthony Bonaventure. To the right Hollandia comes to the rescue
Date 30 November 1652 Location Off the coast of Dungeness Result Decisive Dutch victory Dutch gain temporary control of the English Channel
Belligerents
Dutch Republic	Commonwealth of England
Commanders and leaders
Maarten Tromp	Robert Blake
Strength
73 warships and some fireships, though only part was able to participate	37 warships
Casualties and losses
1 ship lost in accidental explosion	5 ships lost: 2 captured, 3 sunk

Decisive Dutch victory

5 ships lost:
2 captured,

The naval Battle of Dungeness took place on 30 November 1652 (10 December Gregorian calendar), during the First Anglo-Dutch War near the cape of Dungeness in Kent.

In September 1652 the government of the Commonwealth of England, the Council of State, mistakenly believing that the United Provinces after their defeat at the Battle of the Kentish Knock would desist from bringing out a fleet so late in the season, sent away ships to the Mediterranean and the Baltic. At the same time the largest English vessels remained in repair and active ships were undermanned as sailors deserted or rioted because their wages were in arrears. This left the English weakened and badly outnumbered in home waters. Meanwhile, the Dutch were making every effort to reinforce their fleet. Dutch trade interests demanded that their navy would make a final effort to convoy merchantmen to the south.

On 21 November 1652 Old Style, 1 December New Style, Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp, again (unofficial) supreme commander after his successor Vice-Admiral Witte de With had suffered a breakdown because of his defeat at the Battle of the Kentish Knock, set sail from the naval port of Hellevoetsluis with 88 men of war and five fireships, escorting a vast convoy of 270 merchantmen bound for France, the Mediterranean and the Indies. At first, unfavourable southwestern gales forced him to return but on 23 November he again sailed south. With the convoy, accompanied by sixteen warships, safely delivered through the Straits of Dover, Tromp turned to the west in search of the English, and on 29 November 1652 he discovered the English fleet of 42 capital ships and ten smaller vessels anchored in the Downs, between the landheads of North Foreland and South Foreland, commanded by General at Sea Robert Blake. After a council of war in which it was decided to avoid battle, the English promptly left their anchorage, sailing south. Blake may have not realized how large the Dutch fleet was, or he may have feared to become trapped like the Spanish had some years earlier in the Battle of the Downs. The wind was now strong from the northwest, so the English could not return to the Downs in any case, having to settle for Dover. The English fleet swiftly rounded South Foreland while the Dutch were unable to reach them, both fleets anchoring in the evening at about five miles distance. During the night a storm dispersed some Dutch vessels. Next morning, at noon the two fleets began to move southwest, with the English hugging the coast and the Dutch keeping some distance. The forces were separated by the Rip-Raps and the Varne Shoal and therefore unable to engage. Ultimately the curve of the shoreline, the cape of Dungeness or the "Hook of the Shingles" jutting out, forced the English to turn on a southerly course. Between the Varne Shoal and Dungeness a narrow exit exists. Blake had hoped to escape through it but when he arrived already about seventeen Dutch ships were waiting for him. Nevertheless, he continued his manoeuvre. At about 15:00, the leading ships of both fleets met in what a contemporary account called a "bounteous rhetoric of powder and bullet".

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