The Dutch fleet burn ships at Chatham,
threaten London,
and proceed to Portsmouth. and a strong tide, broke through it, destroyed the fortifications of Sheerness, burnt three large merchant ships, the Matthias, the Unity, and the Charles V., which had been taken from them during the present war, and carried away with them the hull of the Royal Charles, besides burning and damaging several others. After this they pushed up the Medway as far as Upnor Castle, near Chatham, and burnt the Royal Oak, the Royal London, and the Great James before the eyes of the Dukes of York and Albemarle, who had just arrived with some troops. Fearing that the Dutch fleet would sail up to London Bridge, the English sunk thirteen ships at Woolwich, and four at Blackwall, and raised various platforms furnished with artillery to defend the approaches to the city. After committing all the damage he could in the Thames, De Ruyter sailed for Portsmouth with a design to burn the ships in the harbour, but, finding them secured, passed on down Channel and captured several vessels in Torbay. Thence proceeding eastwards, he routed the English off Harwich, and chased a squadron of nineteen men-of-war under Sir Edward Spragge, who was forced to retire into the Thames, thus keeping the English coasts in continual alarm until the Treaty of Peace was signed in the following July.[1]*
- ↑ There is no doubt that in this raid on the English coast the Dutch were successful in doing a great amount of damage to the English marine; but at the same time more credit is due than has been usually given to Sir Edward Spragge, who, on two successive days, with only a small force of five frigates and seventeen fire-ships, repulsed the Dutch fleet under Van Nes, though on the first he was compelled to fall back for a few hours under the guns of Tilbury Fort. Van Nes had been sent by De Ruyter to force his way up the Thames, and Spragge deserves to be recorded as the English admiral who
