Battle of the Kentish Knock

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The naval Battle of the Kentish Knock (or the Battle of the Zealand Approaches) was fought on 8 October 1652 during the First Anglo-Dutch War near the shoal called the Kentish Knock in the North Sea about 30 km from the mouth of the river Thames. In Dutch the action is called the Slag bij de Hoofden.

Dutch Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp had been suspended after his failure to bring the English to battle off the Shetland Islands in August, and replaced by Vice-Admiral Witte de With, who saw an opportunity to concentrate his forces and gain control of the seas. He set out to attack the English fleet at anchor at the Downs near Dover on 5 October 1652, but the wind was unfavourable.

When the fleets finally met on 8 October, the United Provinces had 62 ships; the Commonwealth of England 68 ships under General at Sea Robert Blake. Before the battle De With wanted to transfer his flag to the Brederode, Tromp's flagship, but Tromp's crew refused to let him onboard, calling De With 'green cheese'. Zealandic Commodore Cornelis Evertsen was called in to negotiate but to no avail. De With was forced to hoist his flag on the VOC-ship Prins Willem where he found the majority of its crew drunk. Action was joined at about 17:00 when Blake on Sovereign engaged the Dutch. The English ships were larger and better armed than their opponents and by 19:00 one Dutch ship, the Maria, had been captured while another captured ship, the Gorcum, was abandoned by the English in a sinking condition but re-occupied and saved by the Dutch. The Burgh van Alkmaar blew up. The next day, early in the morning, about fifteen Dutch ships, mostly commanded by captains from Zealand who resented the domination of Holland and severely disliked De With, had broken off the engagement and simply sailed home. This is usually attributed to the fact that De With in the battle council in the morning of the second day had called all Zealandic captains cowards and had warned them that in Holland there was still sufficient wood left to erect gallows for any of them. The situation had become hopeless for the Dutch who now had 42 ships left in their fleet, yet De With still wanted to continue. Commodore Michiel de Ruyter and Vice-Admiral Johan Evertsen however managed to convince De With to do otherwise and the Dutch fleet withdrew followed by Blake. De With and De Ruyter nicely covered the retreat with a dozen ships and the Dutch would not lose any more ships though there were many casualties.

The Dutch recognized after their defeat that they needed larger ships to take on the English, and instituted a major building program that never really came to pass until the Second Anglo-Dutch War.

The English believed that the Dutch had been all but defeated, and sent twenty ships away to the Mediterranean, a mistake that led to a defeat at the Battle of Dungeness but didn't prevent the defeat of the not yet reinforced English Mediterrenean fleet at the Battle of Leghorn. In the former battle the Dutch were led again by Tromp; De With had suffered a mental breakdown and would be officially replaced as supreme commander in May 1653.

Ships involved:

[edit] England (Robert Blake)

Sovereign 90
Resolution 88
James 66
Triumph 60
Vanguard 58
Andrew 56
Speaker 54
Lion 50
Convertine 44
Garland 44
Advice 42
Diamond 42
Foresight 42
Pelican 42
Ruby 42
Assistance 40
Assurance 40
Dragon 40
London 40 (hired merchantman)
Nonsuch 40
President 40
Richard and Martha 40 (hired merchantman)
Portsmouth 38
Anthony Bonaventure 36 (hired merchantman)
Hound 36 (ex-?)
Guinea 34
Hercules 34 (hired merchantman)
Lisbon Merchant 34 (hired merchantman)
Convert 32 (ex-French)
Mary 32 (flyboat)
Exchange 30 (hired merchantman)
Cullen 28 (hired merchantman)
Prudent Mary 28 (hired merchantman)
Advantage 26 (ex-Dutch)
Falmouth 26 (ex-Dutch)
Sampson 26 (ex-Dutch)
Martha 25 (hired merchantman)
Golden Dove 24 (hired merchantman)
Old Warwick 24
Pearl 24
Acorn 22 (hired merchantman)
Cygnet 22
Little President 22
Nightingale 22
Gift 16+ (hired merchant pink)
Paradox 12
Renown 10 (fireship)

[edit] The Netherlands (Witte de With)

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