The battle began as an attempted raid on Solebay port where an English fleet was anchored and largely unprepared for battle. They were then surprised by a Dutch fleet. The battle prevented a planned allied naval invasion of the Dutch Republic and boosted the morale of the Dutch population.
The battle
Overview of the battle by Van de VeldeFrench flagship Saint-Philippe at the Battle of Solebay
A fleet of 75 warships, 20,738 men and 4,484 cannon of the United Provinces, commanded by Lieutenant-Admirals Michiel de Ruyter, Adriaen Banckert and Willem Joseph van Ghent, surprised a joint Anglo-French fleet of 93 warships (sources vary), 35,000-40,000 men and 6,158 cannon at anchor in Solebay (nowadays just Southwold bay), at Southwold in Suffolk, on the east coast of England.[4][9] The Dutch had the weather gauge until their withdrawal.[10][11]
The Duke of York and Vice-Admiral Comte Jean II d'Estrées planned to blockade the Dutch in their home ports and deny the North Sea to Dutch shipping. The Dutch had hoped to repeat the success of the Raid on the Medway and a frigate squadron under Van Ghent sailed up the Thames in May but discovered that Sheerness Fort was now too well prepared to pass. The Dutch main fleet came too late, mainly due to coordination problems between the five Dutch admiralties, to prevent a joining of the English and French fleets. It followed the Allied fleet to the north, which, unaware of this, put in at Solebay to refit. On 7 June the Allies were caught by surprise and got into disarray when the Dutch fleet, having the weather gauge, suddenly appeared on the horizon in the early morning. The French fleet, whether through accident or design, steered south followed by Banckert's fifteen ships and limited its action to long-distance fire.[12][a] Nevertheless, the Superbe was heavily damaged and des Rabesnières killed by fire from Enno Doedes Star's Groningen; total French casualties were about 450.
This left the Dutch vanguard and centre to fight it out with the English, and the latter were hard pressed, as they had great difficulty to beat upwind to bring ships out.[b] The Duke of York had to move his flag twice, finally to London, as his flagships Prince and St Michael were taken out of action. The Prince was crippled by De Ruyter's flagship De Zeven Provinciën in a two hours' duel. De Ruyter was accompanied by the representative of the States-General of the Netherlands, Cornelis de Witt (the brother of Grand PensionaryJohan de Witt) who bravely remained seated on the main deck, although half of his guard of honour standing next to him was killed or wounded.
Lieutenant-Admiral Aert Jansse van Nes on the Eendracht first duelled Vice-Admiral Edward Spragge on HMS London and then was attacked by HMS Royal Katherine. The latter ship was then so heavily damaged that Captain John Chichely struck her flag and was taken prisoner; the Dutch prize crew however got drunk on the brandy found and allowed the ship to be later recaptured by the English.
The flagship of Admiral Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, HMS Royal James, was first fiercely engaged by Lieutenant-Admiral Van Ghent, who in 1667 had executed the Raid on the Medway, on Dolfijn. Van Ghent was however killed by shrapnel. Then captain Jan van Brakel made his Groot Hollandia attack to the Royal James, incessantly pounding the hull of that ship for over an hour and bringing her into such a condition that Lord Sandwich considered to strike his flag but decided against it because it was beneath his honour to surrender to a mere captain of low birth. He then ordered sloops from other ships to board the Groot Hollandia; his upper deck soon swarming with Englishmen Van Brakel was forced to cut the lines and retreat between friendly vessels to drive the boarding teams off. The Royal James now drifted away, sinking, and was attacked by several fire ships. She sank two, but a third, Vrede, commanded by Jan Daniëlszoon van den Rijn, its approach shielded by Vice-Admiral Isaac Sweers's Oliphant, set her on fire. She burnt with great loss of life; Sandwich himself and his son-in-law Philip Carteret drowned trying to escape when his sloop collapsed under the weight of panicked sailors jumping in; his body washed ashore, only recognisable by the scorched clothing still showing the shield of the Order of the Garter.
During the battle the wind shifted, giving the English the weather gauge, and in the late afternoon the Dutch withdrew.
Losses were heavy on both sides: one Dutch ship, the Jozua, was destroyed and another, the Stavoren, captured, a third Dutch ship had an accident during repairs immediately after the battle and blew up. The battle ended inconclusively at sunset.
In a strategic sense, it can be seen as a Dutch victory as it deterred Anglo-French plans to blockade Dutch ports and land troops on the Dutch coast.[c] Tactically both sides sustained heavy damages; two English ships were sunk, including the fleet's flagship the ‘’Royal James’’, as well as two French ships sunk. The Dutch also lost two large ships, in addition to many fire ships.
The battle is described in verse, as if in an eyewitness account seen from the coast at Dunwich, in the ballad "A Merry Song on the Duke's late glorious Success over the Dutch", which appears in print (apparently taken from a broadside ballad) in the Suffolk Garland of 1818.[15]
Leeds Central Library has a 50 ft (15m), step by step, pictorial record of the sea battle which dates from around 1910. It is based on contemporary parchments and also features scenes depicting the Battle of Texel. It forms part of the Gascoigne collection.[16]
The battle is described in the novel "An Affair of Dishonour" published in 1910 by William de Morgan who was also an artist in glass and ceramics. A wounded survivor becomes an important character in the story.[17]
The Battle of Solebay forms the historic background to children's adventure novelThe Lion of Sole Bay, the fourth book in the Strong Winds series by Julia Jones[18]
The Adnams Brewery created a beer, named Broadside, in commemoration of the battle's tercentenary.[19][20]
In his novel, “The Black Tulip”, Alexandre Dumas refers to the historical role of Cornelius de Witt in the battle. (Chapter 2, “The Two Brothers”)
^Mahan comments in defense of d'Estrées manoevre: "...both the English and Ruyter thought that the French rather avoided than sought close action. Had d'Estrées, however, gone about, and attempted to break through the line of experienced Dutchmen to windward of him with the still raw seamen of France, the result would have been as disastrous as that which overtook the Spanish admiral at the battle of St. Vincent a hundred and twenty-five years later, when he tried to reunite his broken fleet by breaking through the close order of Jervis and Nelson.[12]
^Mahan comments: "The truth ... is that the Duke of York, though a fair seaman, and a brave man, was not an able one; that his fleet was not in good order and was thus surprised; that his orders beforehand were not so precise as to make the French admiral technically disobedient in taking the opposite tack from the commander-in-chief, and so separating the squadrons; and that Ruyter profited most ably by the surprise he had himself prepared, and by the further opportunity given him by the ineptness of his enemies."[13]
^Admiral Mahan commented: "The substantial results of Solebay fight were wholly favorable to the Dutch. The allied fleets were to have assisted the operations of the French army by making a descent on the coast of Zealand. Ruyter's attack had inflicted an amount of damage, and caused an expenditure of ammunition, which postponed the sailing of the fleet for a month; it was a diversion, not only important, but vital in the nearly desperate condition to which the United Provinces were reduced ashore. It may be added, as an instructive comment on the theory of commerce-destroying, that after this staggering check to the enemy's superior forces, Ruyter met and convoyed safely to port a fleet of Dutch merchantmen".[14]
^J. Ford (ed.), The Suffolk Garland: or, A Collection of Poems, Songs, Tales, Ballads, Sonnets and Elegies (&c.) (John Raw, Ipswich/Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London 1818), pp. 143-46 (Google).
Van Nimwegen, Olaf (2020). De Veertigjarige Oorlog 1672–1712: de strijd van de Nederlanders tegen de Zonnekoning [The 40 Years' War 1672–1712: the Dutch struggle against the Sun King] (in Dutch). Prometheus. ISBN978-90-446-3871-4.
Blok, P.J. (1928). Michiel de Ruyter(PDF) (in Dutch). Martinus Nijhof.
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