Battle of Camperdown

Battle of Camperdown
Part of the naval operations during the War of the First Coalition
The Battle of Camperdown, 11 October 1797, Thomas Whitcombe
Date 11 October 1797 Location Off Camperduin, North Sea 52°45′N 4°12′E / 52.750°N 4.200°E / 52.750; 4.200 Result British victory[1]
Belligerents
Great Britain	Batavian Republic
Commanders and leaders
Adam Duncan	Jan de Winter  (POW)
Strength
16 ships of the line 2 frigates 1 sloop 4 cutters 1 lugger (OOB)	15 ships of the line 6 frigates 4 brigs 1 aviso (OOB)
Casualties and losses
203 killed 622 wounded	540 killed 620 wounded 3,775 captured 9 ships of the line captured 2 frigates captured
class=notpageimage| Location within North Sea

The Battle of Camperdown (known in Dutch as the Zeeslag bij Kamperduin) was a major naval action fought on 11 October 1797,^{[Note 1]} between the British North Sea Fleet under Admiral Adam Duncan and a Batavian Navy (Dutch) fleet under Vice-Admiral Jan de Winter. The battle, the most significant action between British and Dutch forces during the French Revolutionary Wars, resulted in a complete victory for the British, who captured 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 reorganised 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 was ordered to reinforce the French at Brest. The rendezvous never occurred; the continental allies failed to capitalise on the Spithead and Nore mutinies that paralysed the British Channel forces and North Sea fleets during the spring of 1797.

By September, the Dutch fleet under De Winter were blockaded within their harbour in the Texel by the British North Sea fleet under Duncan. At the start of October, Duncan was forced to return to Yarmouth for supplies, and De Winter used the opportunity to conduct a brief raid into the North Sea. When the Dutch fleet returned to the Dutch coast on 11 October, Duncan was waiting and intercepted De Winter off the coastal village of Camperduin. Attacking the Dutch line of battle in two loose groups, Duncan's ships broke through at the rear and van and were subsequently engaged by Dutch frigates lined up on the other side. The battle split into two mêlées, one to the south, or leeward, where the more numerous British overwhelmed the Dutch rear, and one to the north, or windward, where a more evenly matched exchange centred on the battling flagships. As the Dutch fleet attempted to reach shallower waters in an effort to escape the British attack, the British leeward division joined the windward combat and eventually forced the surrender of the Dutch flagship Vrijheid and of ten other ships.

The loss of their flagship prompted 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 was struck by a series of gales and two prizes were wrecked and another had to be recaptured before the remainder reached Britain. Casualties in both fleets were heavy, for the Dutch followed the British practice of firing at the hulls of enemy ships rather than their masts and rigging, which caused higher losses among the British crews than they normally experienced against continental navies. The Dutch fleet was broken as an independent fighting force, losing ten ships and more than 1,100 men. When British forces confronted the Dutch Navy again two years later in the Vlieter Incident, the Dutch sailors, confronted with superior British firepower as they had been at Camperdown, and in the face of pro-Orangist insurrection, abandoned their ships and surrendered en masse.

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