Raid on Essequibo and Demerara (1781)

Raid on Essequibo and Demerara
Part of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
Date 24–27 February 1781 Location Essequibo and Demerara Result British victory
Belligerents
Great Britain	Dutch Republic
Strength
Six vessels	Unknown
Casualties and losses
None	14-15 merchant vessels captured

The raid on Demerara and Essequibo took place between 24 and 27 February 1781 in the context of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780–1784). Six British privateers entered the rivers and captured 15 Dutch vessels before withdrawing.

The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, contemporaneously related to the American Revolutionary War, broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on the legality and conduct of Dutch trade with Britain's enemies in that war. In 1781 France induced the Dutch to side with them and the Americans.

The privateers had heard of the outbreak of war between Britain and the Dutch Republic and decided to take advantage of the situation. They did not have letters of marque authorizing offensive action and so had they failed in their attack the Dutch would have been within their rights to hang any captives as pirates. Britain too could have hanged them for piracy, but the privateers "trusted to the Honour of the Government, that no advantage would be taken of that defect, while they only did what appeared to them to be good service to their country as well as to themselves; and what in their judgement would greatly distress the enemy."

The privateers Bellona, Mercury, and Porcupine arrived at Demerara on 21 February. Hornet joined them the next day. Two privateer schooners from Barbados, the Halton and the Polly, also joined the raid. British reports state they succeeded in bringing out from under the guns of shore batteries 15 prizes of a total tonnage of 4,098 tons (bm), and mounting 124 guns between them. (The privateers between them mounted some 118 guns and mustered a tonnage of about 800 tons (bm).) The largest vessel they brought out was the Boreas, 600 tons (bm) of Amsterdam. Privateers and prizes then left on 27 February.

They left behind four vessels, two of them American. As of 3 March there were also nine merchant vessels in the river at Essequibo.

Dutch reports agree on the losses but point out that the sole defensive structure at Essequibo, Fort Zeelandia, was in no state to be of any use and that the Council at Essequibo had given the commander, Captain Severyn, instructions to put up no more than a token resistance.

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