Battle of Camperdown

11 October 1797, Off Camperduin, North Holland

Decisive British victory; nine Dutch ships of the line taken

All summer Admiral Duncan had kept the Batavian fleet in the Texel, at one point with only two ships while the rest of his fleet was in mutiny at the Nore, signalling to an empty horizon as if to a fleet beyond it. When he went back to Yarmouth to refit in October, Vice-Admiral de Winter came out. Duncan's scouts brought him back in a hurry, and he caught the Dutch close to their own coast. Without waiting to form a line, he attacked in two loose groups, one at the head and one at the rear of the Dutch line, and broke through it in both places. The Dutch fought far harder than the French or Spanish had, and both fleets suffered heavily; the Dutch ships aimed at hulls, not rigging, and British casualties were among the worst of the war. After three hours de Winter's flagship Vrijheid, dismasted, struck, and with her went nine ships of the line. The Batavian navy never recovered.