The transports, and a number of our frigates, came into the Helder next day, and the artillery, cavalry, and stores, were landed in the harbour. The day following the ships of the line came in, and admiral Mitchel went forward to the Dutch fleet, with a squadron of nine sail of the line, and five frigates. The Dutch fleet then surrendered without firing a shot, and hoisted the orange flag. Their crews were in a state of mutiny at the time, partly out of disaffection to the new republican government, but more particularly for want of pay. When they were ordered to prepare for action they refused to fight, and threw the balls and cartridges into the sea. It would, indeed, have been a useless waste of blood for them to have resisted, for if the squadron that went to them had not been sufficient to have reduced them, there were more than enough of war ships, of all descriptions, at hand to have completely overwhelmed them; for after the batteries of the Helder were in our possession, they had no way of saving their ships to their country but by taking out their guns and masts to lighten them, and towing them through the shallow water to some of the ports in the interior, out of our reach. And why they did not do so is not easily accounted for. Besides this fleet of eight sail of the line, three frigates, and a sloop, there were two sail of the line, eleven frigates and smaller vessels of war, and three East India ships lying in the harbour, in various conditions. A large quantity of ammunition and stores, and a great number of cannon for the equipment of ships, were found in the arsenal, exclusive of the guns and mortars that were on the batteries, many of which were brass.