7eat51
06-09-2013, 14:56
On the 9th of June 1667, the Raid on the Medway began, a multi-day battle between the Dutch and English navies, culminating in a decisive victory for the Dutch at the naval base in Chatham, England. Under the command of Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, the Dutch, having captured the town of Sheerness, proceeded up river to Chatham where they captured the HMS Unity and HMS Royal Charles, while destroying 13 other vessels, three of which were capital ships. This action ushered in the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, and secured favorable peace conditions for the Dutch.
http://youtu.be/RoB_wAcgZQM
The Battle:
5432
5433
A Poem on the Battle by Rudyard Kipling:
If wars were won by feasting,
Or victory by song,
Or safety found, by sleeping sound
How England would be strong!
But honour and dominion
Are not maintained so,
They're only got by sword and shot
And this the Dutchmen know!
The moneys that should feed us
You spend on your delight,
How can you then, have sailor-men
To aid you in your fight?
Our fish and cheese are rotten,
Which makes the scurvy grow –
We cannot serve you if we starve,:
And this the Dutchmen know!
Our ships in every harbour
Be neither whole nor sound,
And when we seek to mend a leak,
No oakum can be found,
Or, if it is, the caulkers,
And carpenters also,
For lack of pay have gone away,
And this the Dutchmen know!
Mere powder, guns and bullets,
we scarce can get at all;
Their price was spent in merriment
And revel at Whitehall,
While we in tattered doublets
From ship to ship must row,
Beseeching friends for odds and ends –
And this the Dutchmen know!
No King will heed our warnings,
No Court will pay our claims –
Our King and Court for their disport
Do sell the very Thames!
For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet –
And this the Dutchmen know!
For more on today's event:
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/navalbattles16001800/p/medway.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_the_Medway
http://youtu.be/RoB_wAcgZQM
The Battle:
5432
5433
A Poem on the Battle by Rudyard Kipling:
If wars were won by feasting,
Or victory by song,
Or safety found, by sleeping sound
How England would be strong!
But honour and dominion
Are not maintained so,
They're only got by sword and shot
And this the Dutchmen know!
The moneys that should feed us
You spend on your delight,
How can you then, have sailor-men
To aid you in your fight?
Our fish and cheese are rotten,
Which makes the scurvy grow –
We cannot serve you if we starve,:
And this the Dutchmen know!
Our ships in every harbour
Be neither whole nor sound,
And when we seek to mend a leak,
No oakum can be found,
Or, if it is, the caulkers,
And carpenters also,
For lack of pay have gone away,
And this the Dutchmen know!
Mere powder, guns and bullets,
we scarce can get at all;
Their price was spent in merriment
And revel at Whitehall,
While we in tattered doublets
From ship to ship must row,
Beseeching friends for odds and ends –
And this the Dutchmen know!
No King will heed our warnings,
No Court will pay our claims –
Our King and Court for their disport
Do sell the very Thames!
For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet –
And this the Dutchmen know!
For more on today's event:
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/navalbattles16001800/p/medway.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_the_Medway