Battle of Vågen - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

The Bataille of Vågen was a naval Bataille between a Dutch fleet commercial and treasure and an English flotilla of men-of-war in August 1665, fascinating share with the Second war Anglo-Néerlandaise. The battle took place in bay of Vågen, the principal field of the neutral city of Bergen. Because of a delay of orders, the Norwegian commanders took the party of the Dutchmen, contrary to the secret intentions of the king of the Denmark. The battle ended in the defeat of the English fleet, which beat a retreat, very damaged, but without not to have lost any boat. The fleet of the treasure was helped by the Dutch fleet seventeen days later.

Arrival with Bergen

The Dutch merchant fleet was made up of approximately sixty ships. Approximately seven of them were large vessels highly armed with the Compagnie Dutchwoman of the Eastern Indies (VOC).

The ships under the command of the Rear-admiral Pieter de Bitter returned from the the Indies. Twice a year, company VOC return a fleet to the Netherlands. This one had left the December 25th 1664 and had one of the most invaluable cargoes ever transported. It was charged with many goods of luxury, typical for the “rich person trade”: spices, among which 24 million ounces of Poivre, 440.000 books of Clove, 314.000 books of Nutmeg, 121.600 books of Muscadier and nearly half-million books of grooves; 18.000 books of Wood of ebony; 51.540 ounces of Silk and approximately 200.000 other pieces of fabric; 22.000 books of indigo dyeing; 18.151 Pearl S; 2.933 Ruby, 3.084 Diamond S crudes and 16.580 parts of Porcelain, for a full value of approximately eleven million Guilder S or three million rigsdaler Danish, more than all the annual incomes of the Danish crown. The Netherlanders had paid 36 tons of Or to buy this cargo. In order to avoid English control on the Handle after their victory following the Battle of Lowestoft, the fleet had sailed in the north of the Scotland in order to reach the United Provinces by the the North Sea. The ships gathered in the port of Bergen, town of Norway then neutral to the conflict, to remain with the shelter during July and to await the repair of the Dutch national interior fleet after its defeat with Lowestoft.

The English navy however could get information about Dutch forwarding, and quickly sent an small group of ships to seize, or at least to block the convoy. The national fleet tested in same time to stop the squadron of the Vice-amiral Michiel de Ruyter from which one had learned that it arrived of America, but failed and had to turn over towards the ports of the country for provisioning. When the flotilla directed by the rear-admiral Thomas Teddiman, composed initially of 22 men-of-war but reduced to fourteen (and further the Brûlot S Bryar , Greyhound , and Martin Gally ), reached Bergen with 16:00 it, the ships blocked the entry of bay. The beginning of the English action was not very favourable: the ship of the admiral Teddiman, the Revenge ran aground the same evening on the Northern course and arrived at the price of many efforts, with dééchouer by him even. The entry of bay being only 400 meters broad approximately, the English could place seven ships, north in the south: Careful Mary , Breda , Foresight , Bendish , Happy Return , Saphire and Pembroke . The others pointed their gun S on the coastal artillery batteries.

Missed orders

In Vågen the fortresses of Bergenhus and Sverresborg were. The representatives of the two fleets draw council with the Norwegian commander from the fortress, Johan Caspar von Cicignon and the Norwegian commander of the forces Claus von Ahlefeldt, which for at the time was decided to remain out of the conflict. He had heard rumors in connection with a secret business between the king Charles II of England the king and Frederick III of Denmark (Norway was then in union with Denmark), but no concrete order had arrived. By treaty, a force of five men-of-war of any nation could enter the port; Von Ahlefeldt indicated that it would not allow another thing.

In fact, a secret agreement had been reached one week earlier between the English delegate Talbot and the king of Denmark, saying that Denmark-Norway would make it possible the English fleet to attack the Dutch convoy and that the spoils would be divided. This in spite of the fact that the Danish king was officially the ally of the Netherlanders. The king sent an order to von Ahlefeldt as no matter what it should protest against the English attack, but not to take any measurement against it. This order did not reach Bergen in time. The English sent an order to their fleet saying to them to give their attack until Ahlefeldt received its orders, but the messenger was stopped in the course of road by the Netherlanders. One had however said to Teddiman that a business was in hand. The two kings, as well English as Danish hoped to obtain a personal share of the treasure, without leaving money return in their respective official national treasures. Charles had in addition maintained with Lord Sandwich a secret meeting to make sure of this catch. Lord Sandwich thus sent his nephew and homonym the courtier and adventurous Edouard Montagu (1635-1665), with Teddiman to make sure that all would be held according to the forecasts. Teddiman had been ordered to act quickly and with the most force than possible in order to avoid a participation of the principal fleet English, which would compromise the secrecy then.

Battle day before

When Teddiman sent Montagu to Bergen to coordinate the attack, the Danish commanders refused with his great disappointment to cooperate. Towards 4:00 of the morning, Montagu returned, but it was immediately returned by Teddiman so that it threatens this time the fortresses by violence if those remained been obstinated. Montagu protested that the English fleet held 2000 guns and 6000 men, which did little impression, because it was obvious that it exaggerated the true figures of a factor three. It was taken even even less with serious when it offered the Order of the Garter in exchange of their support. When this one was again refused, Montagu made a small turning and let its boat row beside the Dutch fleet to inspect their preparations. The Netherlanders respected the neutrality of the port, played the Wilhelmus (national anthem) and greeted Montagu by three times with white smoke.

While waiting, the city knew a great tumult owing to the fact that the English sailors had dared to penetrate in the port to intimidate the population, and much of citizens ran away themselves. Of Bitter called its Dutch team-members very quickly behind, the majority of them taking leave on the Bergenois shores, sounding the bells of church. As little of them did not have real experiences as regards combat - and that much of them was not even really Dutch - they convinced them to be raised by promising three months of wages additional in the event of victory. Such promises were legally obligatory under the terms of the Dutch law and the news was accommodated with great enthusiasm. When it finishes its speech while asking: “Do you Have courage to hold vis-a-vis the enemy or not? ”, the men, according to the Dutch reports/ratios protested: “Yes, Mister! We will remain close until we have demolishes the enemy and rather to die to return such a treasure or ourselves to the English! ”

The majority of the Dutch ships were very inserted in bay; at approximately 300 meters of the English line, Of Bitter north placed at the south the ships Slot Hooningen , Catharina , Walcheren (it his), Gulden Phoenix and Rijzende Zon . Thousands of sailors travelling on the lighter boats were them sent in the fortresses to reinforce them.

The battle

Early the morning, the English made beat their drums and resounded their trumpets. The Netherlanders knew whereas the hostilities would start soon. The troops découvirent their heads for a short prayer and then equipped with haste their guns.

When the first violences burst the August 2nd as of 6:00 of the morning (Passage to the Gregorian calendar), the two fleets engaged in the battle simply a few hundreds of meters away one of the other. Teddiman decided to employ again scathing attacks not to endanger the invaluable cargo to be plundered. It did not have in addition what the English call the Weather guarantees , i.e. favorable conditions of wind, and thus could not simply carry out a direct attack. The Netherlanders had placed their eight heaviest boats so that they can give broadsides to the English; the majority of the smallest guns had been moved towards the enemy because the operation would have been in any event impossible. The English fleet was with the shelter of the wind and thus held the best carried. But the English gunners surcompensèrent their shootings and their projectiles were thus lacking most of the time, because the wild southernmost winds and the rain returned the smoke of the English guns to the boats, plugging them, and letting to them be unaware of that the Dutch boats only were very seldom touched. As Bergen exceeds slightly in Vågen in north, the English ships placed more at north had to draw throughout the port to reach the Netherlanders. One their projectiles was crashed to pieces in the fortress and killed four people. The commander answered this attack by opening fire in his turn on the English fleet. This one had approximately 600 guns and 2000 men was in oneself quite higher than the Norwegian arsenal which held only 125 guns and 200-300 men. But the boats facing the Netherlanders were too badly placed to answer Norwegian fire. Without counting that the majority of the English ships were only frigates and thus incompetents to resist as well as the large Dutch trading vessels. It proved soon that the Netherlanders had really acquired the superiority in the firepower. Teddiman had hoped that the moral one of the Dutchmen would drop quickly, and thus made the error not stop its action when he saw that those held good. After three hours pitiless of hammering, the ships blocking the entry of the port were put in rout. The panicked troops broke the cords of anchoring, but some boats remained empêtrés and threatened to capsize because of the weight of the broken masts. They had to anchor once again under fire to cut them. The English were forced to withdraw itself with Herdla with approximately 10:00 of the morning.

Implied boats:

Consequences

The English counted nearly 500 accidents. Andrew Marvell wrote in its long ironic poetry on the subject “of the Dutch war”:

" Six captains were bravely touchés"
" On board, the admiral, was reached, and mourut"

“Reached” (" reached" in the original version) was here only one typical snigger of Marvell, referring to the fact that Teddiman had not placed its flagship in the line of blocking, although it was by far the most powerful boat of which it could be useful without the battle.

In the biography of John Wilmot, 2nd tale of Rochester it is known as that Rochester, Montagu and George Windham, three noble young people, had had a strong premonition of their death. They made a pact as what that which should perish initially appears with different in the form of spirit. Late in the battle, George suddenly started to tremble with fear. Edouard the étreignit for the conseoler and both were massacred by the same ball of gun.

The Dutch convoy suffers to him also some damage. Among the boats, more particularly Catharina and a Mediterranean ship, and the human losses amounted with approximately 25 dead and seventy wounded. Eight men died in the fortress, and ten others in the city.

Continuations of the battle

The orders of Denmark reached Ahlefeldt later four days, the August 6th. With the Dutch trading vessels always with Bergen, Ahlefeldt was gone from there against the English fleet in Herdla the day following to try to repair the damage occasinnés by its guns, offering a chance to them to attack the Dutchmen one second time, and this time without interference on behalf of the fortress. The offer was however rejected, since Teddiman knew that it could not be ready in time before the actions of the principal fleets decided exit of the combat. The following days, the Netherlanders strongly enriched their position: a chain of ship was placed at the entry of the compartment and their sailors improved the fortifications. Because as the wind had turned towards north, they expected a frontal attack of Teddiman, but the British rear-admiral was satisfied to observe the port. The August 19th, a Dutch fleet of support of ninety ships under the command of the Lieutenant-Admiral (Dutch term) Michiel de Ruyter arrived at Bergen, and after having studied the principal British fleet, the Dutch merchant fleet left the port the August 23rd and returned thereafter United Provinces without risk, although some boats were dispersed by an attack and were captured by the English, among them the Slot Hooningen and the Gulden Phoenix , and which will be still lost again during the Bataille on Medway.

For the English, the escape from this invaluable Dutch fleet ghost of the Indies was an enormous shock. But this blow barrel slightly deadens by the capture of the two trading vessels of the VOC. Lord Sandwich was blamed for his failure and fell into dishonor. In February 1666, the Danish king declared the war against England, after reception of great Dutch subsidies. Pieter de Bitter accepted an honorary gold chain of the General states of the United Provinces.

Today, the cathedral of Bergen ( Domkirken ) has a ball of gun of the battle embedded in the wall of its tower. Two figureheads out of wooden, indicating the head of a lion and the head of a Licorne, which belonged to the decoration of the English ships are maintained in the maritime museum of Bergen.

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