Identifier: royalnavy02clow (find matches)
Title: The royal navy : a history from the earliest times to the present
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Clowes, W. Laird (William Laird), Sir, 1856-1905 Markham, Clements R. (Clements Robert), Sir, 1830-1916 Mahan, A. T. (Alfred Thayer), 1840-1914 Wilson, Herbert Wrigley, 1866-1940 Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919 Laughton, L. G. Carr (Leonard George Carr), 1871-
Subjects: Great Britain. Royal Navy
Publisher: London : S. Low, Marston and company, limited
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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and stood with him to the southward. It is impossible now to say exactly why Blake took this step, socontrary to his usually well-considered methods. Many reasons havebeen suggested, and of these the oldest, that Blake had to defendthe river at any cost, is obviously the most fallacious, for Blakescourse took him to leeward of the rivers mouth. It is possible thatBlake recalled how this same Tromp had, in the case of Oquendo,turned the Downs into a rat-trap, and that, in view of the demolitionof the batteries that had protected Ayscue, the anchorage was held tobe unsafe. It is also possible that the thickness of a November dayled him to misjudge the quantity or quality of the enemys fleet.^The action certainly w^as not due to a mere chivalrous spirit thatheld itself in honour bound to accept every proferred challenge. 1 ViecleDeRuijter,24. ^ lb. 3 Ih. and Basnage, 261. * Col. Eostr. 109. ^ Cal. S. P. Dom. 1652, 541, shows that be had lately heard of a large Dutchmerchant fleet at sea.
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£ N a ~ a ■^ S a w ^ !> :^ O •Z ^ fo cr o Ci z = 1652.) BATTLE OFF DUNGENESS. 173 Not until he was under way does Blake seem to have realisedwhat force he had to meet. The wind, too, which, at the time ofweighing had been at S.W., veered and made return to the Downsimpossible. For awhile it was variable, but soon it settled in thenorth-west and blew too strongly to admit of fighting,^ so that withevening Blake anchored in Dover Koads, Tromp lying some twoleagues to leeward, i.e., close off the South Sand Head. Withthe morning of the 30th both weighed, and, as Blake still keptthe wind, both steered parallel courses along the shore. Therewas no engagement till the fleets came off Dungeness, when thetrend of the coast brought the English van down upon the Dutch. There resulted a partial engagement, in which the leading Englishships were terribly outnumbered. It is probable that many Dutchvessels were too far to leeward to help, while it is but too certain thatEnglish captains in

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