Word of the Anglo-Dutch War reaches Sumatra,…
August 1781 CE
The directors of the British company at Fort Marlborough receive instructions from Bombay to destroy all of the Dutch outposts on the west coast of Sumatra.
Quite fortuitously, a fleet of five East Indiamen arrives not long after, and the directors seize the opportunity for action.
Henry Botham, one of the directors, commandeers the fleet, and with one hundred company soldiers sails for Padang.
Jacob van Heemskerk, the VOC chief resident at Padang, surrenders all of the west coast outposts without a fight on August 18, unaware that Botham's force is relatively weak.
The capture nets the British five hundred thousand florins in goods and money.
The fortress at Padang will be destroyed before the town is returned to VOC control in 1784.
Locations
Groups
Netherlands, United Provinces of the (Dutch Republic)
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France, (Bourbon) Kingdom of
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Dutch East India Company in Indonesia
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Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC in Dutch, literally "United East Indies Company")
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Cape Colony, Dutch East India Company's
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India, Dutch
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Britain, Kingdom of Great
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East India Company, British (United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies)
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India, East India Company rule in
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United States of America (US, USA) (Philadelphia PA)
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