Camperdown, Battle of the

The Battle of Camperdown (known in Dutch as the Zeeslag bij Kamperduin) is a major naval action fought on October 11, 1797 between a Royal Navy fleet under Admiral Adam Duncan and a Dutch Navy fleet under Vice-Admiral Jan de Winter.

The battle is the most significant action between British and Dutch forces during the French Revolutionary Wars and results in a complete victory for the British, who capture eleven Dutch ships without losing any of their own.

In 1795, the Dutch Republic had been overrun by the army of the French Republic and had been reorganized into the Batavian Republic, a French client state.

In early 1797, after the French Atlantic Fleet had suffered heavy losses in a disastrous winter campaign, the Dutch fleet is ordered to reinforce the French at Brest.

The rendezvous never occurz; the continental allies fail to capitalize on the Spithead and Nore mutinies that paralyze the British Channel forces and North Sea fleets during the spring of 1797.By September, the Dutch fleet under De Winter is blockaded within their harbor in Texel by the British North Sea fleet under Duncan.

At the start of October, Duncan is forced to return to Yarmouth for supplies and De Winter uses the opportunity to conduct a brief raid into the North Sea.

When the Dutch fleet returns to the Dutch coast on October 11, Duncan is waiting, and intercepts De Winter off the coastal village of Camperduin.

Attacking the Dutch line of battle in two loose groups, Duncan's ships break through at the rear and van and are subsequently engaged by Dutch frigates lined up on the other side.

The battle splits into two melees, one to south, or leeward, where the more numerous British overwhelm the Dutch rear and one to the north, or windward, where a more evenly matched exchange centers on the battling flagships.

As the Dutch fleet attempts to reach shallower waters in an effort to escape the British attack, the British leeward division joins the windward combat and eventually forces the surrender of the Dutch flagship Vrijheid and ten other ships.The loss of their flagship prompts the surviving Dutch ships to disperse and retreat, Duncan recalling the British ships with their prizes for the journey back to Yarmouth.

En route, the fleet is struck by a series of gales and two prizes are wrecked and another recaptured before the remainder reaches Britain.

Casualties in both fleets are heavy, as the Dutch follow the British practice of firing at the hulls of enemy ships rather than their masts and rigging, which causes higher losses among the British crews than are normally experienced against continental nations.

The Dutch fleet is broken as a fighting force, losing ten ships and more than 1,100 men.

When British forces confront the Dutch Navy again two years later in the Vlieter Incident, the Dutch sailors refuse to fight and their ships surrender en masse.

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