Raid on the Medway | |||||||
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Part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War | |||||||
Attack on the Medway, June 1667 by Pieter Cornelisz van Soest, painted c. 1667. The captured ship Royal Charles is right of centre |
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Belligerents | |||||||
Dutch Republic | England | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Michiel de Ruyter |
Duke of Albemarle | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
About 60 ships; 1500 marines | Several ships, garrisons of the forts Upnor and Sheerness | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Around 50 Marines and 8 fireships |
13 English ships lost, |
Michiel de Ruyter
Willem van Ghent
13 English ships lost,
HMS Unity and HMS Royal Charles captured
The Raid on the Medway during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in June 1667, sometimes called the Battle of the Medway, Raid on Chatham or the Battle of Chatham, was a successful and daring attack conducted by the Dutch navy deep upriver targeting the largest English naval battleships at a time when most were virtually unmanned and unarmed, laid up due to lack of funding in the fleet anchorages off Chatham Dockyard and Gillingham in the county of Kent. At the time, the fortress of Upnor Castle and a barrier chain called the 'Gillingham Line' were supposed to protect the mothballed naval ships anchored off Chatham, the main English naval base in southeastern Stuart England.