Raid on Batavia (1806)

Raid on Batavia
Part of the Napoleonic Wars
A painting by Thomas Whitcombe depicting Batavia harbour in 1806.
Date 27 November 1806 Location Batavia, Java, Dutch East Indies Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Kingdom of Holland
Commanders and leaders
Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew	Rear-Admiral Hartsinck
Strength
Four ships of the line, two frigates and a brig	Frigate Phoenix, eight small warships and support from gun batteries on shore
Casualties and losses
One killed, four wounded	Casualties unknown, Phoenix, seven small warships and 20 merchant ships destroyed. One brig and two merchant ships captured.

The Raid on Batavia of 27 November 1806 was an attempt by a large British naval force to destroy the Dutch squadron based on Java in the Dutch East Indies that posed a threat to British shipping in the Straits of Malacca. The British admiral in command of the eastern Indian Ocean, Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, led a force of four ships of the line, two frigates and brig to the capital of Java at Batavia (later renamed Djakarta), in search of the squadron, which was reported to consist of a number of Dutch ships of the line and several smaller vessels. However the largest Dutch ships had already sailed eastwards towards Griessie over a month earlier, and Pellew only discovered the frigate Phoenix and a number of smaller warships in the bay, all of which were driven ashore by their crews rather than engage Pellew's force. The wrecks were subsequently burnt and Pellew, unaware of the whereabouts of the main Dutch squadron, returned to his base at Madras for the winter.

The raid was the third of series of actions intended to eliminate the threat posed to British trade routes by the Dutch squadron: at the Action of 26 July 1806 and the Action of 18 October 1806, British frigates sent on reconnaissance missions to the region succeeded in attacking and capturing two Dutch frigates and a number of other vessels. The raid reduced the effectiveness of Batavia as a Dutch base, but the continued presence of the main Dutch squadron at Griessie concerned Pellew and he led a second operation the following year to complete his defeat of the Dutch. Three years later, with the French driven out of the western Indian Ocean, British forces in the region were strong enough to prepare an expeditionary force against the Dutch East Indies, which effectively ended the war in the east.

In early 1806, Pellew was relieved by the news that a large French squadron under Rear-Admiral Charles Linois had sailed out of the Indian Ocean and into the Atlantic. The departure of Linois after three years of operations in eastern waters freed Pellew's small squadron based at Madras for operations against the Dutch East Indies. Pellew's particular target was the island of Java, where the principal Dutch squadron and their base at Batavia were located. The Dutch Kingdom of Holland was a French client state under Emperor Napoleon's brother Louis Bonaparte and Batavia had been used by Linois in his preparations for the Battle of Pulo Aura, in which a valuable British convoy came under attack, and its position close to the Straits of Malacca threatened British trade with China.

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Wikipedia