In the course of this fight the Dutch lost at least eight warships, and a number of merchant-men variously estimated at from twenty-four to forty. The English admitted to the loss of only one ship. At the end of the third day, however, Blake drew off, and the Dutch admiral got what was left of his convoy into harbour. Oliver Cromwell being now in full power, naval preparations were pressed forward with unexampled vigour, and on June 2nd an English fleet of ninety-five sail under Monk and Deane met Van Tromp and forced him to retreat. Reinforced by Blake with eighteen more ships the English fleet renewed the battle, ultimately driving Van Tromp into harbour with the loss of several ships. On the 29th July the Dutch ran the blockade and came out. On the 31st a battle began in which Van Tromp was killed, and the Dutch with the loss of many ships driven into the Texel. The English fleet, though it lost few ships, appears to have been badly mauled in this final battle, on account of which the Dutch claimed a victory. [Illustration: BLAKE AND TROMP. PERIOD OF THE DUTCH WARS.] In the following month the Dutch fleet again came out, and under De Witt took one convoy to the Sound and brought another back without interference. Just afterwards, however, their fleet was so severely injured by a tremendous three days’ gale that further naval operations were out of the question. Overtures for peace were therefore made, and concluded. The types of English warships in this first Dutch war are given in Pepys’ Miscellany as follows:-- ===================================================================== | | Length |Breadth.|Depth. |Burthen|Highest No. of Rate. | Name. |of Keel.| | | Tons. +-------------- | | ft. |ft. in. |ft. in.| | Men. | Guns. ------+-------------+--------+--------+-------+-------+-------+------ First |_Sovereign_ | 127 |46 6 |19 4 | 1141 | 600 | 100 Second|_Fairfax_ | 116 |34 9 |17 4½| 745 | 260 | 52 Third |_Worcester_ | 112 |32 8 |16 4 | 661 | 180 | 46 Fourth|_Ruby_ | 105½ |31 6 |15 9 | 556 | 150 | 40 Fifth |_Nightingale_| 88 |25 4 |12 8 | 300 | 90 | 24 Sixth |_Greyhound_ | 60 |20 3 |10 0 | 120 | 80 | 18 ===================================================================== The principal Dutch vessels were conspicuously inferior to the best of these English ones, and the war may be said to have been considerably decided by ship superiority. In the peace that followed--which was really very little better than an armed truce--the Dutch set themselves to build warships more on English lines. And, as we shall presently see, they evolved from the war,[15] future strategies based on its lessons.