8. Dutch Surprise Attack Devastates the Royal Navy at Anchor
On June 9th, 1667, the Dutch launched a surprise raid that caught England’s Royal Navy off guard, as Dutch ships brazenly sailed up the Medway river in Kent to attack English warships anchored in dockyards at Gillingham and Chatham. It occurred during the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667), and resulted in one of the most impressive victories in Dutch history.
England had been faring poorly since the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1665, suffering first the Great Plague of 1665 – 1666, then the Great Fire of London in 1666. By 1667, king Charles II of England was broke, unable to pay his sailors, and desperately wanted peace. However, the Dutch, sore about an earlier loss in the First Anglo-Dutch War, wanted to inflict a crushing defeat on the English to even the score, and negotiate from a strong position to impose punitive peace terms.
So the Dutch fleet, commanded by admiral Michiel de Ruyter, entered the Thames estuary, captured Sheerness at the mouth of the Medway, then sailed up that river. They overcame a barrier chain stretched across its waters, as well as fortresses along the way that were intended to protect the English battleships anchored at Gillingham and Chatham.
When the Dutch reached the English ships laid up in their dockyards, virtually unmanned and unarmed, they burned three capital ships and ten smaller warships. They also captured and towed away two major ships of the line, including HMS Royal Charles, the flagship of the Royal Navy, named after the reigning king. The Royal Navy lost 13 ships, while the Dutch lost none.
The demonstration that the English were unable to protect their own fleet within their own borders was one of the greatest humiliations ever suffered by England and the Royal Navy. So great was the debacle that there was speculation about the collapse of the monarchy, which had been restored only seven years earlier after a decade of rule without a king during the English Commonwealth. Chagrined, broke, and with a monarch seated atop a tottering throne, the English hurried to sign a peace treaty favorable to the Dutch the following month, and exited the war.