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HMS TIGER’S
ARMADA,
THE SPANISH 1588 The Spanish Armada
comprised about 130 ships including thirtythree galleons and four galleasses.
It was commanded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia. He sighted the Lizard on 19
July. It was his intention to sail the Armada up the Channel to link up with
Parma's invasion force already assembled at Calais. The English fleet,
the main part of which was assembled at Plymouth, was commanded by Lord Howard
of Effingham, with Francis Drake as his vice-admiral. For nine days there
followed a running battle as the Armada sailed slowly up Channel in a huge
crescent formation with the English ships
engaging whenever the opportunity presented itself. On 21 July the
Spaniards lost the Nuestra Senora del Rosario and the San Salvador. Two
days later Frobisher's squadron got the better of a sharp engagement off
Portland Bill. Another fierce scrap took place off Dunnose Head, Isle of Wight,
on the 25th. But two days later, on the 27th, Sidonia came toa good anchorage at
Calais. The English fleet
was not joined by a squadron from the Downs under Lord Henry Seymour and Sir
William Wynter. In order to prevent
the embarkation of the Spanish and other forces invading England, the anchored
Armada was attacked by fireships on the night of 28/29th -with remarkable
results. Panic set in among the Spaniards: cables were cut and the ships fell
into complete confusion as they attempted to avoid the fireships. The decisive battle
-off Gravelines -was fought the next day. Three or four Spanish galleons were
lost and many others seriously damaged. The wind and current were driving the
Spanish ships towards the lee shore of the Flemish shoals, but a sudden change
of wind enabled the fleet to claw off the dangerous shoals. Sidonia could not
fight his way back down the Channel so he determined to return home to Spain
north-about Scotland and Ireland, a voyage of tragic consequences with the west
coast of Ireland littered with wrecks of his Armada Howard pursued the
ships as far north as the Firth of Forth before calling off the pursuit. Of the original 130
or so ships of Sidonia's Armada only about 70 finally reached home. Battle Honours: This was fought
between a fleet of eighty English ships under the command of General-at-Sea
Robert Blake, supported by Monck, Deane and William Penn, and a Dutch fleet of
equal size escorting a fleet of about 150 merchantmen, all under the command of Tromp. The English ships assembled at
Portsmouth as the Dutch approached the Channel and sighted the Dutch convoy off
Cap Le Havre. Tromp ordered the convoy to turn away while he attacked the
English fleet. Action was joined
on the 18th off Portland and it soon developed into a long-running battle. Tromp
was supported by De Ruyter and Evertsen, but they were all hampered by having to
protect the convoy. Tromp displayed great skill and seamanship in keeping his
losses to a minimum and reaching the safety of Gravelines. Blake gave up the
chase after many ships ran out of ammunition during the three-day chase. Tromp lost eleven
warships, thirty merchantmen and nearly 2,000 men killed or drowned. Blake lost
one ship and nearly 1,000 killed. His was a decisive victory and it represented
a turning point in the war with the Netherlands. Battle Honours: The name of this battle is taken from the
Gabbard Sands off Orfordness, Suffolk. The English fleet comprised about 115
ships including five fireships all under the command of Generals-at-sea George
Monck and Richard Deane. All told these ships were manned by 16,300 men and
carried 3,840 guns. The Dutch fleet was equally formidable. Admiral Marten Tromp
commanded a fleet of 104 ships which included six fireships. Tromp's viceadmirals
were de Ruyter and de With. The fleets sighted each other at dawn on 2 June
1653 but light winds delayed action being joined till 11 o'clock. The first
broadside killed Richard Deane. The first day of battle found the Dutch hard
pressed and they suffered losses of three or four ships. On the following day Blake arrived on the scene
with 18 sail and the Dutch were routed. They withdrew to the Flanders Shallows
where the larger English ships would be unable to follow. Thus the Dutch became
blockaded. Both fleets settled down to undertake extensive repairing and
refitting. The Dutch losses had been enormous. Eleven ships
had been captured by the English, six more had been sunk and three more blown
up. The English lost no vessels, although 126 men were killed and 236 wounded.
1,360 Dutchmen were taken prisoner. Battle Honousr: Adventure
Advice
Andrew
Arms of Holland SCHEVENINGEN
(First Texel) 1652 This was the last
naval battle of this war. An English fleet commanded by General-at-Sea George
Monck (Robert Blake was recovering from wounds) fought a bitter battle with a
Dutch fleet commanded by Marten Tromp. Both fleets were at sea around the Texel, and
both numbered about one hundred ships. Admiral De With, with about twentyseven
ships and ten fireships, was blockaded by Monck. The two main fleets sighted
each other at about noon on 29 July. Tromp cleverly lured Monck from his
blockading area. Monck's fleet chased Tromp's and his leading ships engaged the
last in Tromp's line. Only about thirty ships altogether became engaged. De With managed to slip out of harbour with his
force and in a rising gale sped to join Tromp. At about 7 am on the 31st the fleets came to
close action off the tiny harbour of Scheveningen. The battle raged for six
hours. Tromp was killed by a musket shot to the heart. Jan Evertsen assumed
command. After hours of desperately hard fighting, the
English gained ascendancy and by 8 pm the Dutch were in full flight and the
battle was over The English lost about 250 killed, including a
vice-admiral, a rear-admiral and five captains. Another 700 men were wounded and
two ships were lost. The Dutch lost at least fourteen ships, though
Monck claimed to have taken or destroyed twenty to thirty Dutch ships; they also
lost eight captains and 1,300 prisoners. It was a disastrous outcome for the
Dutch. their one crumb of comfort was the raising of the siege of the Hague. Battle Honours: LOWESTOFT
1665 Lowestoft
was one of the classic battles of sail, fought on an enormous scale between an
English fleet of 109 ships commanded by James, Duke of York (the King's brother)
and 103 ships of a Dutch fleet commanded by Admiral Opdam (or Obdam) Jacob vail
Wassenaer, off the Suffolk coast about 40 miles south-east of Lowestoft. The
Dutch fleet was marauding near the Dogger Bank at the end of May, capturing a
convoy of twenty English merchant ships, when James, Duke of York received
intelligence of the enemy activity. James, in his flagship the Royal Charles (80),
led the English fleet in weighing anchor from the Gunfleet and proceeding to
Southwold Bay. James had with him, commanding two of the enormous squadrons, the
Earl of Sandwich (Montagu) and Prince Rupert, two of the famous generals-at-sea. Two
days of manoeuvring these vast fleets preceded the battle, which was joined at 4
am on 3 June, each fleet passing the other on opposite tacks, each ship engaging
as the enemy ships came into range. Soon the battle had degenerated into a melee
on a grand scale. In
the centre the two flagships Royal Charles and Eendracht (76),
fought a bitter battle, the latter just failing in an attempt to board James's
ship At
one stage a chain shot killed many officers and men alongside James, who was
spattered with their blood. A chronicler (probably James's flag captain Sir
William Penn) wrote: "At 12 came A shot from Opdam yt killed ye Earl of Falmouth
[Charles Berkeley] Lord Musgrave [Muskerry] and Mr Boyle [younger son of the
Earl of Burlington]." Eendracht
then
received a shot in her powder room and exploded with devastating force. Only
five of her complement of many hundl:eds were rescued. With the death
ofWassenaer, Vice-Admiral Jan Evertsen took command. Another demoralizing blow to
the Dutch was the death of Vice-Admiral Kortenaer aboard the Groot
Hollandia. The
English gradually gained the upper hand and the Dutch began to give way. Ships
fouled each other, and no fewer than seven Dutch ships were lost by fire
in this way. With
great skill Evertsen and Cornelis Tromp marshalled the Dutch fleet into a
controlled withdrawal towards the Texel and Maas estuary ,which was reached by
the late evening. They had lost thirty-two ships, only nine of which were
taken as prizes; their casualties amounted to about 4,000 killed and 2,000
taken prisoner. The English losses were amazingly light by comparison. The Charity, captured early in the battle, was the only ship lost. In terms of seamen, 283 were killed and 440 wounded. Battle
Honours: Adventure
Amity
Anne
Antelope ORFORDNESS 1666 (North Foreland) Second Dutch War 1665-67 This
battle was fought between an English fleet of eighty-nine ships and seventeen
fireships jointly commanded by Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle, and a
smaller Dutch fleet of eighty-five ships, twenty fireships and ten smaller
vessels, all under the command of Admiral De Ruyter -the Dutch Nelson. The
result was a brilliant victory for the English, particularly important because
it came so soon after the defeat in the Four Days' Battle. The
long-drawn-out battle began at about lOam on St James's Day, 26 July, in the
North Sea about 40 miles south-east of Orfordness in Suffolk. After two hours'
battling Admiral Cornelis Tromp's rear squadron sailed out of line, broke
through the English line and became locked in combat with the English Blue
Squadron, the rear squadron, under Admiral Sir Jeremy Smythe in Resolution (74). Smythe gained the upper hand and this battle-within-a-battle became a pursuit of De Ruyter, progressing westward in a confused melee, while the main battle between the opposing vans and centres headed nearly due east. The Dutch van was in full flight by 3 pm and an hour later the center gave way too, three flag officers, including Jan Evertsen, being killed. But by then the English were too exhausted to take advantage. Although
retreating, De Ruyter handled the situation in a disciplined and masterly
fashion, even after his own flagship had been severely damaged. Sporadic
skirmishing occurred throughout the night and action flared up briskly in the
early daylight hours, but the Dutch continued their retreat to the shoals of
their coastline. The battle and pursuit were over. The
Dutch losses were considerable: twenty ships were lost, with 4,000 men killed or
drowned and 3,000 wounded. The only English ship lost was Smythe's Resolution,
and the casualties in men killed and wounded were considerably lighter than
the enemy's. Battle Honours: Abigail
Adventure
Advice
Aleppine
Amity SOLEBAY
(Southwold Bay) This battle was fought between a combined
Anglo-French fleet and a huge Dutch fleet in the North Sea. The result was both
a tactical and a strategic victory for the redoubtable Dutch Admiral De Ruyter,
who frustrated a planned invasion of the Netherlands. Solebay, off the coast of Suffolk, was then a
large curved bay, ideal as a fleet anchorage. At the end of May 1672 James, Duke
of York, with his flag in the Princess Royal (120), commanded.a vast
fleet of English and French warships -over seventy ships of the line, and more
than this number of frigates, fireships, transports and smaller vessels. The
Earl of Sandwich, commanding the rear, wore his flag in the RoyalJames (100),
and Admiral D'Estres aboard the St Philippe (78) commanded the van. This
huge assembly of ships lay at anchor provisioning in Solebay. The Dutch fleet under De Ruyter in his flagship Zeven
Provincien (82) discovered the combined fleet and, running before the stiff
north-easterly wind, bore down on the anchorage with his fleet and with
fireships. The English centre division cut cables and stood
to the north with difficulty in face of the wind. The Frenchman, D'Estrees,
managed to get away and fled south-east. De Ruyter, the Dutch admiral, detached
BanckertS with about twenty ships to contain him, evening the odds for the rest
of the fleet. These two divisions, D'Estrees' and Banckerts', fought a battle of
their own and took no further part in the main action. The main Dutch fleet, De Ruyter in the centre,
Van Ghent in the rear, included -heroes of the Medway (see MEDW A Y, pp. 272-3):
Van Brakel who took the Royal Charles; Jan Van Rijn who broke the chain
boom, 'Devil' Evertsen, and his cousin, Cornelis the Younger. Sandwich and Van Ghent engaged first. Brakel in
his Groot Hollandia (60) also found himself obliged to engage Sandwich's Royal
James in a fierce duel. Van Ghent was killed, then, as if in retribution,
Jan Van Rijn's fireships set the mighty Royal James ablaze and she had to
be abandoned. Sandwich and his son-inlaw, Sir Phillip Carteret, got away in a
boat which became so overloaded with survivors that it overturned, everyone
~board being drowned. Sandwich's body was recovered later.
The Duke of York experienced much action too, compelling him to shift his
flag three times during the day. By the evening the Allied fleet was content to
disengage and allow the Dutch divisions to withdraw to the Maas. The English
losses were four ships and 2,500 men. The Dutch lost two ships, Jozua (60)
and Stavoren (48), and another which blew up in the night. De Ruyter had
disabled the English fleet for about a month, had wrested command in the Channel
and thwarted an invasion of the Netherlands. Small reason the Dutch regard him
as their Nelson
Battle Honours:
MARBELLA 1705 (ACTION OFF CABRIT A, CABARET War of the Spanish Succession 1702-13 This
action resulted from a French attempt to land troops for the recapture of
Gibraltar. It was fought between a squadron of French ships of the line under
the command of Commodore Baron de Pointis, and a similar squadron commanded by
Vice-Admiral Sir John Leake. The French squadron arrived in Gibraltar
Bay, but a rising gale drove the French force to leeward towards Marbella. The British squadron layoff Cabrita Point 9 miles south-west of Marbella. Leake had with him five ships of the line. At daybreak on 10 March Leake surprised de Pointis. The
British Admiral had every advantage
and he pressed home his attack with speed and vigour. In a swift and skilful
action the British took the 66-gun Ardent, the Marquis (66) and Arrogant
(60). Two more of the line, the flagship Magnanime (74) and Lys (66),
were driven ashore and burnt by their crews to avoid capture.
Leake had not
only scored a remarkable victory but had saved Gibraltar from attack and had
enhanced his already high reputation.
Battle Honours
Antelope
Bedford
Canterbury
Expedition Greenwich(?) SADRAS
1758 The French had a naval base at Pondicherry on the Coromandel coast of SE India, and the British had one at nearby Cuddalore, south of Madras fronting on to the Bay of Bengal. The French Admiral Comte D'Ache in his flagship Zodiaque (74) and Vice Admiral Pocock in his flagship Yarmouth (64) commanded the respective light squadrons Each sighted.the other at about 9 am as Pocock was preparing to leave Port St David Roads. It was afternoon when contact was made and each squadron of ships were in line. Seven British and nine French (one was a 36 gun frigate) opposed each other. Away to leeward the French had another 74 and a frigate. Pocock opened fire at a range of "half a musket shot" of the flagship. The British rear failed to give good support and later three captains were court-martialled. The French line gave way but Pocock's ships were unable to catch the fleeing ships. The inconclusive nature of this encounter was attributed to the strict adherence to the Fighting Instructions.
Battle
Honours: NEGAPATAM
1758 Three months after the indecisive encounter off Cuddalore in SE India (see SADRAS 1758 p. 194), another inconclusive action occurred between a British squadron commanded by Vice-Admiral George Pocock and a French squadron commanded by Admiral Comte D' Ache off nearby Negapatam. It could well have been named Pocock's Pursuit. Pocock, in his flagship Yarmouth (64), and with another six of the line, chased the Comte's nine of the line for several days before the Frenchmen were finally brought to action at noon on 3 August. A shot from Yarmouth carried away Zodiaque's (74) wheel which caused the French flagship to collide with the Duc d'Orleans. Both survived the experience. D' Ache managed to disentangle, and later to disengage his ships. Under cover of darkness he thereupon retired to the north. No ships had been sunk, but casualties on both sides were heavy.
Battle
Honours: PORTO
NOVO 1759 The scene of this battle was 25 miles south-east of Porto Novo on the Coromandel coast of India near Cuddalore in a position 110 03' N 79° 45' E. It was fought between a squadron of ten British ships commanded by Vice-Admiral George Pocock with his flag in Yarmouth and the French Commodore D'Ache in Zodiaque with eleven ships. This
was the third battle in these waters and was in itself inconclusive, but the
final outcome was to Britain's advantage. The nine ships of the line and Queenborough,
the single frigate, were awarded the battle honour.
Battle
Honours: EGYPT 1801 Napoleon Bonaparte
was well aware of the strategic importance of Egypt not only as a gateway to the
East but also as a bargaining counter when the time came for making peace. The
British, too, were aware of these military, naval and diplomatic considerations.
Consequently Bonaparte resolved to reinforce his naval and military presence in
Egypt. The British followed suit. Once again, apart from some minor support from
the Turks, the British stood alone against the French Alliance. By 1801 Napoleon stood astride Europe, seemingly
invincible, confident in conquering, superior in military skills and victories.
But at sea the British were daring and superior -and they knew it. In 1801 the British conducted the first
successful amphibious expedition of the war, landing at Aboukir, employing overwhelming
force, as is indicated by the list of ships engaged.
The Royal Navy forces were commanded by the C-in-C of the Mediterranean, Admiral
George Elphinstone (1st Viscount Keith), and the military forces by General Sir
Ralph Abercromby. Abercromby became a casualty and died of his wounds. Cairo was
captured and isolated groups of Bonaparte's troops were rounded up and evicted
by Turks and Mamelukes. DOGGER BANK 1915 Although this was a British naval victory, a tactical error saved the German squadron from suffering a severe mauling. Rear-Admiral Franz von Hipper sailed from Wilhelms haven with the object of attacking British patrols in the seas around the Dogger Bank in the North Sea. He took with him a formidable force of battlecruisers: the First Scouting Group, Seydlitz (flag: 25,000 tons lOx 11"), Moltke (23,000 tons, lOx 11"), Derfflinger(28,000 tons, 8 x 12"), together with the armoured cruiser Blucher (15,500 tons, 12 x 8.2"), accompanied by four light cruisers and two destroyer flotillas. Acting Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty's battlecruiser force was despatched from Rosyth, augmented by the Harwich Force commanded by Commodore R. Y .Tyrwhitt. It was Beatty's purpose to position his force between Hipper and his
base. Beatty had the battlecruisers Lion (26,350 tons, 8 x 13.5"), Tiger
(27,000 tons, 8 x 13.5"), Princess Royal (same class as Lion),
New Zealand (18,800 tons, 8 x 12") and Indomitable (17,250 tons,
8 x 12") escorted by the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron and torpedo boats Hipper's force was
sighted early on 24 January and a high-speed action ensued in the course of
which the Seydlitz was struck by a 13.5" shell from Lion, silencing
her X and Y turrets and killing 160 men. Blucher was also hit and began
to lose way. The German force seemed to be in grave danger. Then
three shells struck Lion and she rapidly fell astern. RearAdmiral
Arthur Moore in New Zealand assumed command of the pursuit, but
concentrated the fire of his whole squadron on the _crippled Blucher instead
of pursuing the remainder of Hipper's force. Blucher capsized and sank
after three hours of indescribable punishment; only 189 of her crew were
rescued. By then the opportunity of destroying the rest of the squadron had
gone. JUTLAND (Skagerrak)
1916 The greatest battle at sea of the First World War was fought between the main fleets of the Royal Navy and the Imperial German Navy. Both opposing fleets were divided into two distinct advance forces consisting on the one hand of battlecruisers, cruisers and destroyers under the command of Vice-Admiral David Beatty and Vice-Admiral Franz von Hipper, and on the other hand the main fleets of battleships, cruisers and destroyers commanded by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe and Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer. The German plan was to lure the British Grand Fleet to sea from its
bases over carefully positioned V-boats which could then launch torpedo attacks.
But this ill-conceived plan suffered many defects and failed in many respects.
Yet Jutland (or Skagerrak as the Germans call it) was a contest between mighty
Britain and the newcomer, a battle where, curiously, the most modern weapons,submarines
and aircraft were not employed. This clash of the capital ships was to be the first major battle of its kind, and the last.
Jutland was unique, and will ever remain so It was also a chapter of might-have-beens,
but one thing is certain. The German High Seas Fleet should never have escaped
the annihilation that faced it in the murky wastes of the North Sea in 1916. Hipper put to sea with his scouting force, followed by Scheer's main Battle Fleet about 60 miles astern. Intelligence of these moves became known to the Admiralty and the Grand Fleet (always ready at short notice for sea) sailed. Beatty's force left harbour ahead of Jellicoe, and was, like Scheer, followed by the Main Fleet about 60 miles astern. On that day, 31 May 1916, most of the world's capital ships were at sea, seeking battle, none of them knowing the strength of the opposition or their exact whereabouts. Action started almost by accident. Galatea (3,520 tons, 2 x 6") and 6 x 4") on the port wing of the advanced cruiser screen turned to investigate a Swedish merchant ship almost at the same time as a German warship on the port wing of their advance screen did the same. In a few minutes "Enemy in sight" was being flashed to the battlefleets. Beatty's Battlecruiser Force (less the battleships) and Hipper's Battlecruiser Scouting Force were soon engaged, the latter trying to lure Beatty to the south towards Scheer's battleships. In this phase of the engagement six British and five German battlecruisers were exchanging shots. Within a short time the Indefatigable. (18,750 tons, 8 x 12") had been pounded to destruction by the accurate shelling of Von der Tann (21,000 tons, 8 x 11 "). The Queen Mary (27,000, 8 x 13.5"), battered by the Seydlitz (25,000 tons, 10 x 11") and the Derfflinger (28,000 tons, 8 x 12"), blew up with frightening suddeness. Beatty then found himself confronted with Scheer's battle force. He turned his battlecruisers away to the northward, hoping to draw Scheer towards Jellicoe's main Battle Fleet. Hipper and Scheer, neither aware that Jellicoe was at sea, complied: they expected to destroy Beatty's battlecruisers. At 6 pm about 80 miles west of the Jutland peninsula the two main fleets clashed. Soon the cruiser Wiesbaden sank. Minutes later the armoured cruiser Defence (14,600 tons, 4 x 9.2" and 10 x 7.5") exploded and sank. Derfflinger, assisted this time by Lutzow (28,000 tons, 8 x 12"), again demonstrated her accurate gunnery by inflicting terrible damage on Invincible (17,250 tons, 8 x 12"), which soon blew up. However, Lutzow was so seriously pummelled in this phase that she sank the following day. Jellicoe deployed his fleet into line of battle on the port wing column, a masterly move which put his fleet across Hipper's line of retreat and crossed the German's T. The scene was all set for a resounding British victory. But it was not to be. The battle continued in a confused fashion throughout the night. During this night phase Hipper avoided being trapped by Jellicoe and managed to extricate his forces, only encountering light British opposition. The old pre-dreadnought Pommern (13,200 tons, 14 x 6.7") suffered much damage in the night and finally sank at 4.10 am. The light cruiser Frauenlob (2,715 tons, 10 x 4.7") took a lot of punishment and she sank. The German destroyer Elbing was rammed and sunk by a German battleship, and the light crusier Rostock (4,900 tons, 12 x 4.1") sank after a fierce duel with British destroyers. Black Prince (13,550 tons, 6 x 9.2" and 10 x 6") had to be abandoned when fires gained control and she sank. When daylight came
on 1 June the German fleet had reached the safety of its own minefield in the
Heligoland Bight. Jellicoe and the British found themselves gazing at an empty
sea. The losses sustained were as follows: BRITISH GERMAN
3 Battlecruisers
1 Pre-Dreadnought
6,090 men killed
2,550 men killed
The place of Jutland in the war is debated to this day, more than eighty years later. Tactically and in material terms the rewards went to Scheer and Hipper. Strategically the British retained command of the sea and the German High Seas Fleet never again came out to dispute control. As one journalist put it "The German fleet had assaulted its gaoler, but is still in prison." Battle Honours: |
