Holland: The History of the NetherlandsGrattan, Thomas Colley
History
Holland: The History of the Netherlands
Grattan, Thomas Colley
Netherlands -- History
Great preparations were made in England to recover this disgrace;
eighty sail put to sea under Blake, Dean, and Monk, so celebrated
subsequently as the restorer of the monarchy. Tromp and De Ruyter,
with seventy-six vessels, were descried on the 18th of February,
escorting three hundred merchantmen up Channel. Three days of
desperate fighting ended in the defeat of the Dutch, who lost
ten ships of war and twenty-four merchant vessels. Several of
the English ships were disabled, one sunk; and the carnage on
both sides was nearly equal. Tromp acquired prodigious honor
by this battle; having succeeded, though defeated, in saving,
as has been seen, almost the whole of his immense convoy. On
the 12th of June and the day following two other actions were
fought: in the first of which the English admiral Dean was killed;
in the second, Monk, Pen, and Lawson amply revenged his death
by forcing the Dutch to regain their harbors with great loss.
The 21st of July was the last of these bloody and obstinate conflicts
for superiority. Tromp issued out once more, determined to conquer
or die. He met the enemy off Scheveling, commanded by Monk. Both
fleets rushed to the combat. The heroic Dutchman, animating his
sailors with his sword drawn, was shot through the heart with a
musket-ball. This event, and this alone, won the battle, which
was the most decisive of the whole war. The enemy captured or sunk
nearly thirty ships. The body of Tromp was carried with great
solemnity to the church of Delft, where a magnificent mausoleum was
erected over the remains of this eminently brave and distinguished
man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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