Affair of Fielding and Bylandt
Encyclopedia
The Affair of Fielding and Bylandt refers to a brief naval engagement off the Isle of Wight
on 31 December 1779 between a Royal Navy
squadron, commanded by Commodore
Charles Fielding
, and a naval squadron of the Dutch Republic
, commanded by rear-admiral Lodewijk van Bylandt
, escorting a Dutch convoy. The Dutch and British were not yet at war, but the British wished to inspect the Dutch merchantmen for what they considered contraband
destined for France
, then engaged in the American War of Independence. Bylandt attempted to avoid the engagement by offering the ships' manifests, but when Fielding insisted on a physical inspection, Bylandt put up a brief show of force, before striking his colours
. The British then seized the Dutch merchantmen and conducted them as prizes to Portsmouth
, followed by the Dutch squadron. The incident worsened the diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the Dutch Republic almost to breaking point. It also contributed to the formation of the First League of Armed Neutrality
to which the Dutch acceded in December, 1780. To prevent their receiving assistance from other members of that League, Britain declared the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
shortly afterwards.
, initially (after the Glorious Revolution
of 1688) as the senior partner in the alliance, but later in the 18th century as the increasingly junior partner. It was bound to Britain by a number of treaties of military alliance (notably those of 1678, 1689 and 1716) which arguably obligated it to offer armed support. On the other hand, it had obtained in the Treaty of Breda and its offshoot, the Commercial Treaty of 1668 (confirmed in the Treaty of Westminster
) an important concession from England: the right to transport non-contraband goods in its ships to countries with which Britain was at war, without these goods being subject to seizure by Britain even if they were owned by subjects of belligerent powers (this was usually referred to as the principle of "free ship, free goods"). The concept "contraband" was narrowly defined in these treaties as "arms and munitions." So-called "naval stores" (by which were commonly understood: ship's timbers, masts and spars, rope, canvas, tar and pitch) were not to be considered contraband. This right became important during wars in which Britain was a participant, but the Republic remained neutral, like the Seven Years' War
and after 1778 the American Revolutionary War, in which Britain opposed the rebelling American Colonies and their allies, France and Spain. It exempted Dutch bottoms arguably from inspection by the Royal Navy (or at least from confiscation of the goods in British prize court
s), thereby undermining Britain's ability to maintain an effective embargo
on the trade of her enemies, especially because Dutch shipping at the time still played a major role in the European carrying trade.
Though public opinion in the Republic became more and more sympathetic to the American Revolution
in the years after 1776, the Dutch government that was dominated by stadtholder
William V
and his autocratic regime, inclined to support the British. However, the highly-federalized structure of the Republic prevented the central government from effectively interfering with the commerce of cities like Amsterdam
, which conducted a highly profitable trade with the American rebels (exchanging arms and munitions for colonial wares, like tobacco) via the entrepôt
of the Dutch West India Company
in its colony of St. Eustatius. The Amsterdam merchants also supplied France with naval stores, which that country needed for its naval construction, but was unable to procure itself in Norway
and the Baltic countries, due to the British blockade. The Republic as a neutral power was therefore very useful for the French and their war effort. Britain, of course, viewed these developments with disfavour, and tried to force the Dutch government to put a stop to them. Diplomatic means failed, however. The Republic refused to provide military assistance in the form of the "loan" of its mercenary Scottish Brigade, when Britain requested that brigade for service in America. It also (reluctantly) provided shelter in Dutch territorial waters for the squadron of the American privateer John Paul Jones
in 1779, and refused to embargo the export of arms and munitions. These refusals were due to the influence of Amsterdam, but also to diplomatic counter-pressure of France, exerted by its highly able ambassador Paul François de Quelen de la Vauguyon
. When diplomatic means did not suffice, Britain resorted increasingly to seizure of what it considered "contraband" in Dutch bottoms on the high seas by the Royal Navy and British privateer
s. This elicited howls of protest from the affected merchants, for which the Dutch government at first remained deaf. France then started to exert pressure on the Dutch government to "defend its treaty rights" by selectively subjecting the Dutch cities, that supported the stadtholder in his opposition to taking countermeasures against the British "depredations," to economic sanctions. This soon convinced those cities to fall in line with Amsterdam and start clamouring for escort by Dutch naval vessels of convoy
s of merchantmen.
The States-General of the Netherlands
(the governing body of the Republic) changed its position in November, 1779 and ordered the stadtholder, in his quality of commander-in-chief of the Dutch armed forces, to start offering limited convoy services to Dutch shipping. This despite the fact that the Dutch navy, because of long neglect, had become only a shadow of its former self. The 20 ships of the line that were not too old to serve, were no match for the British ships armed with 90 or 80 guns. According to the Dutch historian De Jonge the Royal Navy at the time had 137 ships of the line and France 68. After much discussion the States-General had decided on a programme of naval construction in 1778. Twenty-four new ships of the line were to be built, but this programme progressed only slowly, mainly because only the province of Holland paid its share of the cost. None of the new ships were as yet available. This did not bode well for a future naval conflict between the Republic and Great Britain and may help explain a certain lack of enthusiasm in the Dutch navy to engage in such a conflict. It should be noted that though the Republic did not concede the British interpretation of the Commercial Treaty that naval stores were to be considered contraband after all, the stadtholder prevailed in his policy of nevertheless excluding such stores from the convoys, to minimize friction with the British.
) to become part of the convoys. Finally, he enjoined Bylandt to avoid anything that might jeopardize the neutrality of the Republic.
The squadron of Admiral Bylandt departed from the Texel
on 27 December 1779. It consisted of the his flagship
, the 54-gun ship of the line
Prinses Royal Frederika Sophia Maria, the 40-gun Argo (Captain Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen
), the 44-gun Zwieten (Captain Nauman), the 26-gunValk (Captain Silvester) and the 26-gun Alarm (Captain Mulder). They escorted 17 Dutch merchantmen. After progressing calmly a few days through the English Channel
the convoy encountered a British squadron in the morning of 30 December. This consisted of the 90-gun , flying the broad pennant of Commodore Fielding, the 74-gun ships (Captain Thomas Allen), (Captain J. N. P. Nott), (Captain James Bradby) and (Captain Samuel Goodall
), the 60-gun HMS Buffalo
(Captain H. Bromedge), the 50-gun (Captain Anthony Hunt), the 32-gun (Captain Samuel Marshall), the 20-gun ships (Captain Isaac Prescott) and (Captain Richard Bligh
), the 12-gun (Captain Richard Murray) and the 8-gun (Captain M. Cole). Courageux hailed the Dutch flagship and asked for a parley
to which Bylandt agreed. Fielding then sent a boat with two parlimentaire
s, one of which was his flag captain
Marshall. Marshall demanded Bylandt's acquiescence in a physical inspection of the Dutch merchantmen by the British.
Bylandt replied that such a request was unprecedented as in peacetime the bona fides of the naval escorts of the convoy were usually accepted when the commanding officer asserted on his word of honour that the convoy did not transport contraband. He produced the manifests of the ships in the convoy and sworn statements of the captains of the merchantmen that they did not transport contraband, and added that he had personally satisfied himself that the convoy did not contain ship's timbers, though the Dutch did not consider this contraband. Marshall asked whether the ships carried hemp
or iron (he apparently was well informed) and Bylandt admitted that they did and that this had never been considered contraband. Marshall replied that according to the British these particular commodities now constituted contraband. Seeing that he would not get any further with Marshall, Bylandt then sent his own flag captain, his nephew Frederik Sigismond van Bylandt, to the Namur to negotiate directly with Fielding. This failed to produce agreement. Fielding announced that he would start searching the Dutch vessels the next morning (as night had now fallen) and the younger Bylandt replied that in that case the Dutch would open fire.
During the night twelve of the Dutch merchantmen managed to slip away so that the next morning the convoy only existed of the remaining five ships. Fielding now closed in with three of his ships of the line (Namur and two 74s) but was blocked by Bylandt with Prinses Royal, Argo and the frigate Alarm (the other two Dutch ships were out of reach). Nevertheless, Namur sent a launch to one of the Dutch merchantmen and Prinses Royal then fired two shots across its bow to make it veer away. About what happened next the British and Dutch versions differ. According to Bylandt and his captains in their depositions under oath during his court martial the three British ships immediately fired a broadside
, to which the Dutch ships replied with one broadside of their own. According to Fielding he fired a single shot, which was answered by a broadside, to which the British answered with broadsides of their own.
After this exchange of fire Bylandt immediately struck his colours and signalled the other Dutch ships to do the same. This was remarkable, as the Dutch standing orders explicitly prohibited Dutch ships from surrendering if they were still capable of fighting, even when the flagship surrendered. It transpired at Bylandt's court martial that he had given sealed orders to his captains before departure from the Texel that they had to surrender when he gave a designated signal. He later explained that he had written these secret orders, because he foresaw that he would be confronted with an overwhelming superiority in numbers and guns, against which resistance would be useless. He had decided to offer only token resistance in such a case, just enough to "satisfy honour", but that it was imperative to restrain his captains of undue displays of courage in such a case, as that would defeat his purpose of avoiding needless bloodshed.
This was a typical example of 18th-century warfare that more than modern warfare was aimed at avoiding needless casualties. The British interpreted the striking of the colours as it was intended: to break off the fight and not a real surrender. They made no attempt to board the Dutch warships. Fielding proceeded with his inspection of the five merchantmen and duly arrested them when he found the "contraband" hemp. He then sent a message to Bylandt allowing him to rehoist his colours and proceed on his way. Bylandt replied, however, that he would stay with the merchantmen. Possibly annoyed by this, Fielding then demanded that the Dutch warships would salute the British flag as was his right under the several Anglo-Dutch treaties. Normally the Dutch did not object to this procedure, but in this case Bylandt hesitated. However, to avoid a needless firefight, and because he wished to carefully observe the treaties (as in his view Fielding had failed to do), so strengthening the Dutch case for presenting the British as aggressors, Bylandt complied under protest with this demand. Dutch public opinion would hold it against him. Finally the British sailed with their captives to Portsmouth, followed into port by Bylandt, who sent a complaint to the Dutch ambassador in Britain, count Van Welderen, as soon as he arrived.
, if not treason
. To defend his honour Bylandt then demanded a court martial to clear his name. This blue-ribbon panel
, consisting of no less than seven admirals, soon acquitted him of all charges brought against him though his secret surrender orders required some suppleness of mind in explaining them away. However, the prosecutor delivered a statement for the prosecution that might easily have been taken for a statement for the defense, thereby giving a strong impression of a whitewash to contemporaries (though not to sympathetic historians like De Jonge). Many even suspected that Bylandt's conduct was the result of a conspiracy by the stadtholder to support the British.
As a consequence of the political unrest, the stadtholder had to cease his resistance to unlimited convoy
. The Dutch would henceforth try to defend their full treaty rights, to the satisfaction of France, which suspended its economic sanctions. The British, on the other hand, ceased all pretence of respecting those treaty rights. In April, 1780 the British abrogated the Commercial Treaty of 1668, and declared that they would henceforth treat the Dutch like any other neutral, without benefit of "free ship, free goods." Meanwhile, however, Empress Catherine II of Russia
, shocked by the incident and even more by a similar mistreatment by Spain of two Russian ships, decided to issue a manifesto in which she demanded respect of the "free ship, free goods" principle for all neutrals by the belligerents. France and Spain were quick to comply (Spain issued abject apologies), but Britain, of course, demurred: the declaration was mainly aimed at the practices of the Royal Navy. Catherine then started negotiations with other neutral powers, including the Republic, to form what was to become the League of Armed Neutrality
.
The Republic saw an opportunity in it to protect itself from the British attacks on its trade without having to join the war against Great Britain. However, the Dutch overplayed their hand by asking for a guarantee of their colonies by the other members of the League. This Catherine was loath to grant. Eventually the Dutch settled for what was on offer and joined the League in December, 1780. The British then negated this gambit by declaring war on the Dutch for ostensibly unrelated reasons, thereby providing the other members of the League with an excuse to withhold their armed assistance to the Dutch. The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
had started.
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
on 31 December 1779 between a Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
squadron, commanded by Commodore
Commodore (Royal Navy)
Commodore is a rank of the Royal Navy above Captain and below Rear Admiral. It has a NATO ranking code of OF-6. The rank is equivalent to Brigadier in the British Army and Royal Marines and to Air Commodore in the Royal Air Force.-Insignia:...
Charles Fielding
Charles Fielding
Charles Fielding or Feilding was a British naval officer who gained brief notoriety for his role in the Affair of Fielding and Bylandt in the run-up to the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War...
, and a naval squadron of the Dutch Republic
Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...
, commanded by rear-admiral Lodewijk van Bylandt
Lodewijk van Bylandt
Lodewijk Count Van Bylandt was a Dutch lieutenant-admiral. He gained a certain notoriety in the Affair of Fielding and Bylandt of 1779 and even more in consequence of the refusal of the Dutch navy to put out to sea to combine with the French fleet in Brest in 1783, during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch...
, escorting a Dutch convoy. The Dutch and British were not yet at war, but the British wished to inspect the Dutch merchantmen for what they considered contraband
Contraband
The word contraband, reported in English since 1529, from Medieval French contrebande "a smuggling," denotes any item which, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold....
destined for France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, then engaged in the American War of Independence. Bylandt attempted to avoid the engagement by offering the ships' manifests, but when Fielding insisted on a physical inspection, Bylandt put up a brief show of force, before striking his colours
Striking the colors
Striking the colors is the universally recognized indication of surrender, particularly for ships at sea. Surrender is dated from the time the ensign is struck.-In international law:# "Colors. A national flag . The colors . ....
. The British then seized the Dutch merchantmen and conducted them as prizes to Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, followed by the Dutch squadron. The incident worsened the diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the Dutch Republic almost to breaking point. It also contributed to the formation of the First League of Armed Neutrality
First League of Armed Neutrality
The first League of Armed Neutrality was an alliance of European naval powers between 1780 and 1783 which was intended to protect neutral shipping against the British Royal Navy's wartime policy of unlimited search of neutral shipping for French contraband...
to which the Dutch acceded in December, 1780. To prevent their receiving assistance from other members of that League, Britain declared the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
The Fourth Anglo–Dutch War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, tangentially related to the American Revolutionary War, broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on the legality and conduct of Dutch trade with Britain's enemies in that...
shortly afterwards.
Background
The Dutch Republic had, after a period of strife during the second half of the 17th century, become a steadfast ally of the Kingdom of Great BritainKingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
, initially (after the Glorious Revolution
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...
of 1688) as the senior partner in the alliance, but later in the 18th century as the increasingly junior partner. It was bound to Britain by a number of treaties of military alliance (notably those of 1678, 1689 and 1716) which arguably obligated it to offer armed support. On the other hand, it had obtained in the Treaty of Breda and its offshoot, the Commercial Treaty of 1668 (confirmed in the Treaty of Westminster
Treaty of Westminster (1674)
The Treaty of Westminster of 1674 was the peace treaty that ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War. Signed by the Netherlands and England, it provided for the return of the colony of New Netherland to England and renewed the Treaty of Breda of 1667...
) an important concession from England: the right to transport non-contraband goods in its ships to countries with which Britain was at war, without these goods being subject to seizure by Britain even if they were owned by subjects of belligerent powers (this was usually referred to as the principle of "free ship, free goods"). The concept "contraband" was narrowly defined in these treaties as "arms and munitions." So-called "naval stores" (by which were commonly understood: ship's timbers, masts and spars, rope, canvas, tar and pitch) were not to be considered contraband. This right became important during wars in which Britain was a participant, but the Republic remained neutral, like the Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
and after 1778 the American Revolutionary War, in which Britain opposed the rebelling American Colonies and their allies, France and Spain. It exempted Dutch bottoms arguably from inspection by the Royal Navy (or at least from confiscation of the goods in British prize court
Prize court
A prize court is a court authorized to consider whether or not a ship has been lawfully captured or seized in time of war or under the terms of the seizing ship's letters of marque and reprisal...
s), thereby undermining Britain's ability to maintain an effective embargo
Embargo
An embargo is the partial or complete prohibition of commerce and trade with a particular country, in order to isolate it. Embargoes are considered strong diplomatic measures imposed in an effort, by the imposing country, to elicit a given national-interest result from the country on which it is...
on the trade of her enemies, especially because Dutch shipping at the time still played a major role in the European carrying trade.
Though public opinion in the Republic became more and more sympathetic to the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
in the years after 1776, the Dutch government that was dominated by stadtholder
Stadtholder
A Stadtholder A Stadtholder A Stadtholder (Dutch: stadhouder [], "steward" or "lieutenant", literally place holder, holding someones place, possibly a calque of German Statthalter, French lieutenant, or Middle Latin locum tenens...
William V
William V, Prince of Orange
William V , Prince of Orange-Nassau was the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, and between 1795 and 1806 he led the Government of the Dutch Republic in Exile in London. He was succeeded by his son William I...
and his autocratic regime, inclined to support the British. However, the highly-federalized structure of the Republic prevented the central government from effectively interfering with the commerce of cities like Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, which conducted a highly profitable trade with the American rebels (exchanging arms and munitions for colonial wares, like tobacco) via the entrepôt
Entrepôt
An entrepôt is a trading post where merchandise can be imported and exported without paying import duties, often at a profit. This profit is possible because of trade conditions, for example, the reluctance of ships to travel the entire length of a long trading route, and selling to the entrepôt...
of the Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...
in its colony of St. Eustatius. The Amsterdam merchants also supplied France with naval stores, which that country needed for its naval construction, but was unable to procure itself in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and the Baltic countries, due to the British blockade. The Republic as a neutral power was therefore very useful for the French and their war effort. Britain, of course, viewed these developments with disfavour, and tried to force the Dutch government to put a stop to them. Diplomatic means failed, however. The Republic refused to provide military assistance in the form of the "loan" of its mercenary Scottish Brigade, when Britain requested that brigade for service in America. It also (reluctantly) provided shelter in Dutch territorial waters for the squadron of the American privateer John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones was a Scottish sailor and the United States' first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. Although he made enemies among America's political elites, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to...
in 1779, and refused to embargo the export of arms and munitions. These refusals were due to the influence of Amsterdam, but also to diplomatic counter-pressure of France, exerted by its highly able ambassador Paul François de Quelen de la Vauguyon
Paul François de Quelen de la Vauguyon
Paul François de Quelen de La Vauguyon or Paul François de Quélen de Stuer de Caussade, duc de La Vauguyon was a French nobleman. He was governor of Cognac, after having been involved in the last campaigns of the Seven Years' War...
. When diplomatic means did not suffice, Britain resorted increasingly to seizure of what it considered "contraband" in Dutch bottoms on the high seas by the Royal Navy and British privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
s. This elicited howls of protest from the affected merchants, for which the Dutch government at first remained deaf. France then started to exert pressure on the Dutch government to "defend its treaty rights" by selectively subjecting the Dutch cities, that supported the stadtholder in his opposition to taking countermeasures against the British "depredations," to economic sanctions. This soon convinced those cities to fall in line with Amsterdam and start clamouring for escort by Dutch naval vessels of convoy
Convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...
s of merchantmen.
The States-General of the Netherlands
States-General of the Netherlands
The States-General of the Netherlands is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets in at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The archaic Dutch word "staten" originally related to the feudal classes in which medieval...
(the governing body of the Republic) changed its position in November, 1779 and ordered the stadtholder, in his quality of commander-in-chief of the Dutch armed forces, to start offering limited convoy services to Dutch shipping. This despite the fact that the Dutch navy, because of long neglect, had become only a shadow of its former self. The 20 ships of the line that were not too old to serve, were no match for the British ships armed with 90 or 80 guns. According to the Dutch historian De Jonge the Royal Navy at the time had 137 ships of the line and France 68. After much discussion the States-General had decided on a programme of naval construction in 1778. Twenty-four new ships of the line were to be built, but this programme progressed only slowly, mainly because only the province of Holland paid its share of the cost. None of the new ships were as yet available. This did not bode well for a future naval conflict between the Republic and Great Britain and may help explain a certain lack of enthusiasm in the Dutch navy to engage in such a conflict. It should be noted that though the Republic did not concede the British interpretation of the Commercial Treaty that naval stores were to be considered contraband after all, the stadtholder prevailed in his policy of nevertheless excluding such stores from the convoys, to minimize friction with the British.
The incident
When the first convoys were prepared in December 1779 (one to the West Indies, under Rear-Admiral Willem Crul, and another to France and the Mediterranean under Rear-Admiral Count Lodewijk van Bylandt), the stadtholder gave written instructions that these should exclude ships that transported naval stores (as he at the time understood that the British defined those: in essence ships' timbers).He also prohibited allowing ships from "nations not recognized by the Republic" (i.e the ships of John Paul JonesJohn Paul Jones
John Paul Jones was a Scottish sailor and the United States' first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. Although he made enemies among America's political elites, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to...
) to become part of the convoys. Finally, he enjoined Bylandt to avoid anything that might jeopardize the neutrality of the Republic.
The squadron of Admiral Bylandt departed from the Texel
Texel
Texel is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark...
on 27 December 1779. It consisted of the his flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
, the 54-gun ship of the line
Ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...
Prinses Royal Frederika Sophia Maria, the 40-gun Argo (Captain Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen
Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen
Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen , or Count of Doggersbank, was a Dutch naval officer. Having had a good scientific education, Van Kinbergen was a proponent of fleet modernization and wrote many books about naval organization, discipline and tactics.In 1773, he twice defeated an Ottoman fleet while in...
), the 44-gun Zwieten (Captain Nauman), the 26-gunValk (Captain Silvester) and the 26-gun Alarm (Captain Mulder). They escorted 17 Dutch merchantmen. After progressing calmly a few days through the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
the convoy encountered a British squadron in the morning of 30 December. This consisted of the 90-gun , flying the broad pennant of Commodore Fielding, the 74-gun ships (Captain Thomas Allen), (Captain J. N. P. Nott), (Captain James Bradby) and (Captain Samuel Goodall
Samuel Goodall
Samuel Granston Goodall was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars in a career that spanned 50 years, rising to the rank of Admiral of the White.Goodall rose from obscure origins to the rank of...
), the 60-gun HMS Buffalo
HMS Captain (1743)
HMS Captain was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built according to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Woolwich Dockyard, and launched on 14 April 1743....
(Captain H. Bromedge), the 50-gun (Captain Anthony Hunt), the 32-gun (Captain Samuel Marshall), the 20-gun ships (Captain Isaac Prescott) and (Captain Richard Bligh
Richard Bligh
Sir Richard Rodney Bligh GCB was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, eventually rising to the rank of Admiral....
), the 12-gun (Captain Richard Murray) and the 8-gun (Captain M. Cole). Courageux hailed the Dutch flagship and asked for a parley
Parley
Parley is a discussion or conference, especially one between enemies over terms of a truce or other matters. The root of the word parley is parler, which is the French verb "to speak"; specifically the conjugation parlez "you speak", whether as imperative or indicative.Beginning in the High Middle...
to which Bylandt agreed. Fielding then sent a boat with two parlimentaire
Parlimentaire
A Parlimentaire is defined by the U.S. Department of Defense as an agent employed by a commander of belligerent forces in the field to go in person within the enemy lines for the purpose of communicating or negotiating openly and directly with the enemy commander.-History:Even in war the...
s, one of which was his flag captain
Flag captain
In the Royal Navy, a flag captain was the captain of an admiral's flagship. During the 18th and 19th centuries, this ship might also have a "captain of the fleet", who would be ranked between the admiral and the "flag captain" as the ship's "First Captain", with the "flag captain" as the ship's...
Marshall. Marshall demanded Bylandt's acquiescence in a physical inspection of the Dutch merchantmen by the British.
Bylandt replied that such a request was unprecedented as in peacetime the bona fides of the naval escorts of the convoy were usually accepted when the commanding officer asserted on his word of honour that the convoy did not transport contraband. He produced the manifests of the ships in the convoy and sworn statements of the captains of the merchantmen that they did not transport contraband, and added that he had personally satisfied himself that the convoy did not contain ship's timbers, though the Dutch did not consider this contraband. Marshall asked whether the ships carried hemp
Hemp
Hemp is mostly used as a name for low tetrahydrocannabinol strains of the plant Cannabis sativa, of fiber and/or oilseed varieties. In modern times, hemp has been used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction, health food and fuel with modest...
or iron (he apparently was well informed) and Bylandt admitted that they did and that this had never been considered contraband. Marshall replied that according to the British these particular commodities now constituted contraband. Seeing that he would not get any further with Marshall, Bylandt then sent his own flag captain, his nephew Frederik Sigismond van Bylandt, to the Namur to negotiate directly with Fielding. This failed to produce agreement. Fielding announced that he would start searching the Dutch vessels the next morning (as night had now fallen) and the younger Bylandt replied that in that case the Dutch would open fire.
During the night twelve of the Dutch merchantmen managed to slip away so that the next morning the convoy only existed of the remaining five ships. Fielding now closed in with three of his ships of the line (Namur and two 74s) but was blocked by Bylandt with Prinses Royal, Argo and the frigate Alarm (the other two Dutch ships were out of reach). Nevertheless, Namur sent a launch to one of the Dutch merchantmen and Prinses Royal then fired two shots across its bow to make it veer away. About what happened next the British and Dutch versions differ. According to Bylandt and his captains in their depositions under oath during his court martial the three British ships immediately fired a broadside
Broadside
A broadside is the side of a ship; the battery of cannon on one side of a warship; or their simultaneous fire in naval warfare.-Age of Sail:...
, to which the Dutch ships replied with one broadside of their own. According to Fielding he fired a single shot, which was answered by a broadside, to which the British answered with broadsides of their own.
After this exchange of fire Bylandt immediately struck his colours and signalled the other Dutch ships to do the same. This was remarkable, as the Dutch standing orders explicitly prohibited Dutch ships from surrendering if they were still capable of fighting, even when the flagship surrendered. It transpired at Bylandt's court martial that he had given sealed orders to his captains before departure from the Texel that they had to surrender when he gave a designated signal. He later explained that he had written these secret orders, because he foresaw that he would be confronted with an overwhelming superiority in numbers and guns, against which resistance would be useless. He had decided to offer only token resistance in such a case, just enough to "satisfy honour", but that it was imperative to restrain his captains of undue displays of courage in such a case, as that would defeat his purpose of avoiding needless bloodshed.
This was a typical example of 18th-century warfare that more than modern warfare was aimed at avoiding needless casualties. The British interpreted the striking of the colours as it was intended: to break off the fight and not a real surrender. They made no attempt to board the Dutch warships. Fielding proceeded with his inspection of the five merchantmen and duly arrested them when he found the "contraband" hemp. He then sent a message to Bylandt allowing him to rehoist his colours and proceed on his way. Bylandt replied, however, that he would stay with the merchantmen. Possibly annoyed by this, Fielding then demanded that the Dutch warships would salute the British flag as was his right under the several Anglo-Dutch treaties. Normally the Dutch did not object to this procedure, but in this case Bylandt hesitated. However, to avoid a needless firefight, and because he wished to carefully observe the treaties (as in his view Fielding had failed to do), so strengthening the Dutch case for presenting the British as aggressors, Bylandt complied under protest with this demand. Dutch public opinion would hold it against him. Finally the British sailed with their captives to Portsmouth, followed into port by Bylandt, who sent a complaint to the Dutch ambassador in Britain, count Van Welderen, as soon as he arrived.
Aftermath
Dutch public opinion was understandably outraged, both by the British action and by what they considered Bylandt's pusillanimity, that in the view of many amounted to cowardiceCowardice
Cowardice is the perceived failure to demonstrate sufficient mental robustness and courage in the face of a challenge. Under many military codes of justice, cowardice in the face of combat is a crime punishable by death...
, if not treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
. To defend his honour Bylandt then demanded a court martial to clear his name. This blue-ribbon panel
Blue-Ribbon Panel
Blue-ribbon panel is an informal term generally used to describe a group of exceptional persons appointed to investigate or study a given question. The term generally connotes a degree of independence from political influence or other authority, and such panels usually have no direct authority of...
, consisting of no less than seven admirals, soon acquitted him of all charges brought against him though his secret surrender orders required some suppleness of mind in explaining them away. However, the prosecutor delivered a statement for the prosecution that might easily have been taken for a statement for the defense, thereby giving a strong impression of a whitewash to contemporaries (though not to sympathetic historians like De Jonge). Many even suspected that Bylandt's conduct was the result of a conspiracy by the stadtholder to support the British.
As a consequence of the political unrest, the stadtholder had to cease his resistance to unlimited convoy
Convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...
. The Dutch would henceforth try to defend their full treaty rights, to the satisfaction of France, which suspended its economic sanctions. The British, on the other hand, ceased all pretence of respecting those treaty rights. In April, 1780 the British abrogated the Commercial Treaty of 1668, and declared that they would henceforth treat the Dutch like any other neutral, without benefit of "free ship, free goods." Meanwhile, however, Empress Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
, shocked by the incident and even more by a similar mistreatment by Spain of two Russian ships, decided to issue a manifesto in which she demanded respect of the "free ship, free goods" principle for all neutrals by the belligerents. France and Spain were quick to comply (Spain issued abject apologies), but Britain, of course, demurred: the declaration was mainly aimed at the practices of the Royal Navy. Catherine then started negotiations with other neutral powers, including the Republic, to form what was to become the League of Armed Neutrality
First League of Armed Neutrality
The first League of Armed Neutrality was an alliance of European naval powers between 1780 and 1783 which was intended to protect neutral shipping against the British Royal Navy's wartime policy of unlimited search of neutral shipping for French contraband...
.
The Republic saw an opportunity in it to protect itself from the British attacks on its trade without having to join the war against Great Britain. However, the Dutch overplayed their hand by asking for a guarantee of their colonies by the other members of the League. This Catherine was loath to grant. Eventually the Dutch settled for what was on offer and joined the League in December, 1780. The British then negated this gambit by declaring war on the Dutch for ostensibly unrelated reasons, thereby providing the other members of the League with an excuse to withhold their armed assistance to the Dutch. The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
The Fourth Anglo–Dutch War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, tangentially related to the American Revolutionary War, broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on the legality and conduct of Dutch trade with Britain's enemies in that...
had started.