Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Rise and Growth of the English Nation, Vol. 3 of 3: With Special Reference to Epochs and Crises; A History of and for the People; A. D. 1658 1895
After several ineffectual attempts by the Dutch to contest the naval supremacy, they tried finally to assert it in a sea-fight off Dover, May 18, 1652. Admiral van Tromp was beaten by Blake, who captured forty of their merchant ships that Summer, cleared the Channel, sailed Northwards and dispersed the herring-fishery, and concluded his exploits by another successful naval engagement in September, in the Downs. A temporary reverse occurred in November off the Goodwin Sands, through Blake accepting battle with a ?eet double his own in strength. Van Tromp sailed through the narrow seas in bravado, with a broom at his mast-head, in token that he had swept the Channel; but in the following February, a great battle waged for three days, and the Dutch were beaten off with a loss of seventeen Ships and thirty merchantmen. The insult of the broom was avenged, and was never repeated. Three months later, Blake sent to Cromwell a despatch announcing a great naval victory Off the North Foreland eleven Ships being sunk, and six others taken, with more than a thousand prisoners. Another engagement was fought, July 29, off the Holland coast, by Blake's subordinates, as he was incapacitated through illness; when van Tromp was killed, and the Dutch supremacy was finally broken. A treaty was effected, which embraced Holland, Denmark, the Hanse Towns, and the Swiss Protestant Cantons. England awoke to a consciousness of her advantageous insular position for maritime trade. The power then asserted has never been lost.
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