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Battle of the Downs
Part of the Eighty Years' War
Before the Battle of the Downs by Reinier Nooms, circa 1639, depicting the Dutch blockade off the English coast, the vessel shown is the Aemilia, Tromp's flagship.
Date 31 October 1639 Location near The Downs, English Channel Result Decisive Dutch victory
Belligerents
Spain Portugal	United Provinces
Commanders
Antonio de Oquendo	Maarten Tromp
Strength
77 ships	117 ships
Casualties and losses
6,000 dead 43 ships destroyed or captured	1000 dead 10 ships burned

The naval Battle of the Downs took place on 31 October 1639 (New style), during the Eighty Years' War and was a decisive defeat of the Spanish, commanded by Admiral Antonio de Oquendo, by the United Provinces, commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp.

Opening phase

In 1639, the Spanish prepared a force of 77 ships carrying 24,000 soldiers and sailors, in a desperate attempt to resupply their forces in Flanders after the French had cut off the usual land route. The fleet, under command of Antonio de Oquendo, left on 16 September from A Coruña. It tried to reach Dunkirk, the last large Catholic port on the North Sea coast. It was sighted in the English Channel by a Dutch squadron commanded by Tromp on 25 September (New style). Tromp had only 13 ships, sending one back for help, and at first merely fell back before the Spanish fleet.

When reinforced by Vice-Admiral Witte de With, bringing his total to sixteen (the Groot Christoffel had blown up on 26 September), Tromp closed in on 27 September. His own flotilla deployed in a line-of-battle formation in a leeward position, the first documented case of such tactics in history. Concentrating his fire upon the most powerful Spanish ships, he damaged them so severely that the morale of their entire fleet broke. This was perhaps also influenced by the fact that De With could not restrain himself, he left the line with his flotilla and in his usual rabid way directly attacked ship after ship with the utmost ferocity. The next day, more reinforcements arrived: 12 ships of Zealandic Rear-Admiral Joost Banckert. This preliminary fight is known as the Action of 18 September 1639 (Old style).

The Spanish, whose first priority was to protect the troops, not to endanger them by continuing the battle, were driven to take refuge off the coast of England, in the anchorage known as The Downs between Dover and Deal, near an English squadron commanded by Vice-Admiral John Pennington. They hoped the usual autumn storms would soon disperse the Dutch fleet. Tromp, as always, endured De With's insubordination with complacency. In a famous scene, described by De With himself, after the battle, he entered Tromp's cabin with his face sooty, his clothes torn, and limping from a leg wound. Tromp looked up from his desk and asked: "Are you alright, De With?". De With replied: "What do you think? Would I have been if you had come to help me?".

On the evening of the 28th, Tromp and De With withdrew to resupply, as they were short on gunpowder. They feared they had failed in their mission until they rediscovered the Spanish at the Downs on the 30th. Together, they blockaded the Spanish and sent urgently to the Netherlands for reinforcements. The five Dutch admiralties hired any large armed merchant ship they could find. Many joined voluntarily, hoping for a rich bounty. By the end of October, Tromp had 105 ships and 12 fire ships.

Meanwhile, the Spanish began to transport their troops and money to Flanders on British ships under an English flag. Tromp stopped this by searching the English vessels and detaining any Spanish troops he found. Uneasy about the possible English reaction to this, he pretended to Pennington to be worried by his secret orders from the States-General. He showed him, "confidentially", a missive commanding him to attack the Spanish armada wherever it might be located and to prevent by force of arms any interference by a third power. Tromp also formally asked de Oquendo why he refused battle though he had superior firepower. De Oquendo replied that his fleet had to be repaired first, but that he could not obtain masts and other materials now that the Dutch blockaded him. On learning this, Tromp supplied the Spanish with the necessary materials for repair. Nevertheless they did not leave the English coast.

The battle

On 31 October, an easterly wind giving him the weather gage, Tromp dispatched De With with one squadron to watch the English and prevent them from interfering, kept two squadrons to the north (under Cornelis Jol) and the south (under Commodore Jan Hendriksz de Nijs) to block escape routes and attacked with three squadrons. Some of the large, unmanoeuverable Spanish ships panicked on approach of the Dutch fleet and grounded themselves deliberately; they were immediately plundered by the English populace, present in great numbers to watch the uncommon spectacle. Others tried a planned breakthrough.

De Oquendo's Royal Flagship, the Santiago, came out first followed by the Santa Teresa, the Portuguese flagship. Five blazing fireships were sent into the Spanish ships. The first ship could disengage and avoid three of them in the last moment but these hit the following Santa Teresa, who had just managed to repel the attack of the other two. Too big (the biggest ship in the Spanish/Portuguese fleet) and slow to manoeuvre, and with no time to react, the Santa Teresa was finally grappled and set on fire by one. With Admiral Lope de Hoces already dead by his wounds, she fiercely burned with great loss of life.

The Portuguese ships were intercepted by the squadron of the Zealandic Vice-Admiral Johan Evertsen who launched his fireships against them: most were taken or destroyed, leaving reportedly 15,200 dead and 1,800 prisoner. The number of dead is today considered as greatly exaggerated; for example, it does not take into account that a third of the troops had already reached Flanders. De Oquendo managed to escape in the fog with seven ships, most of them Dunkirkers, and reach Dunkirk.

Aftermath

The celebrated Dutch victory was a significant marker in the shifting balance of naval power. The Spanish mission itself was not a complete failure; the larger part of the troops and all the money reached Flanders. The determination of the Spanish-Portuguese crews is shown by one of the galleons that did break through the blockade, after having been hit by some 1,200 cannon shots. But Spain, straining under the vast commitments of the Thirty Years war, was in no position to rebuild its dominance at sea, even as many small battles over the interception of merchantmen and fishermen raged on. The Dutch and English were quick to take advantage by seizing some more small Spanish island possessions. But by far the worst effects for Spain was the weakening of its position in the Southern Netherlands, and the subsequent insurrection of Portugal, with the restoration of its independence from the Spanish Habsburgs in 1640.

Tromp was hailed as a hero on his return and was rewarded with 10,000 guilders invoking the jealousy of De With who only got 1,000. De With wrote some anonymous pamphlets painting Tromp as avaricious and himself as the real hero of the battle. As Spain was gradually losing its position as the dominant great power, England was temporarily weak and France had not yet begun to build a strong navy. After the victory, the Dutch allowed their navy to diminish greatly with the war's end. So with an ineffective naval administration and too few and too light ships, they were at a serious disadvantage in their coming struggles with the English.

For England, the Battle of the Downs was a humiliation: a flagrant violation of English neutrality within sight of the English coast, with England's navy unable to intervene. Lingering resentment from this incident may have influenced the breakout of the First Anglo-Dutch War not far from the Downs at the Battle of Goodwin Sands in 1652.

Order of battle

The Netherlands (Maarten Tromp)

(not complete: the contemporaneous Dutch sources give only lists of participating captains; in many cases it is unknown which ship they commanded)
26 September:
Aemilia 57 (Tromp, flagcaptain Barend Barendsz Cramer) Rotterdam
Frederik Hendrik 36 (Pieter Pietersz de Wint) Amsterdam; on 31 October this was Witte de With's flagship
Hollandsche Tuyn 32 (Lambert IJsbrandszoon Halfhoorn) Northern Quarter (Noorderkwartier)
Salamander 40 (Laurens Pietersz Backhuysen) - WIC ship
Gelderland 34 (Willem van Colster) Rotterdam
Sampson 32 (Claes Cornelisz Ham) Noorderkwartier
Omlandia 28 (Jan Gerbrandszoon) Frisia
Groot Christoffel 28 (hired by Noorderkwartier admiralty, Frederick Pieterszoon) - blew up on 26 September
Deventer 28 (Robert Post) Amsterdam
Gideon 24 (Hendrick Jansz Kamp) Frisia
Meerminne 28 (Jan Pauluszoon) Zealand
unidentified ship of 32 cannon under Cornelis Ringelszoon from the Zealand admiralty.

Reinforcements 27 September:
Maeght van Dordrecht 42 (Vice-Admiral Witte de With) Rotterdam
Overijssel 24 (Jacques Forant) Amsterdam
Utrecht 30 (Gerrit Meyndertsz den Uyl) Amsterdam
Sint Laurens 32 (A.Dommertszoon)
Bommel 28 (Sybrant Barentsz Waterdrincker) Amsterdam

Reinforcements 28 September:
Banckert squadron:
't Wapen van Zeeland 28 (Vice-Admiral Joost Banckert) Zealand
Zeeridder 34 (Frans Jansz van Vlissingen) Zealand
Zutphen 28 (Joris van Cats) Amsterdam
Walcheren 28 (Jan Theunisz Sluis) Amsterdam
't Wapen van Holland 39 (Lieven Cornelisz de Zeeuw) Noorderkwartier
Neptunis 33 (Albert 't Jongen Hoen) Noorderkwartier
Amsterdam 10 (Pieter Barentsz Dorrevelt) Amsterdam
Drenthe 16 (Gerrit Veen) Amsterdam
Rotterdam 10 (Joris Pietersz van den Broecke) Frisia
Arnemuyden 22 (Adriaen Jansz de Gloeyende Oven) Zealand
Ter Goes 24 (Abraham Crijnssen) Zealand
Friesland 22 (Tjaert de Groot) Frisia

After reinforcements 31 September
Evertsen squadron:
Vlissingen 34 (Vice-Admiral Johan Evertsen, flagcaptain Frans Jansen) Zealand

De With squadron: thirty ships, four fireships

Jol squadron, seven ships:
Jupiter (Cornelis Cornelisz Jol "Houtebeen") WIC

De Nijs squadron, eight ships

Spain/Portugal (Antonio de Oquendo)

Order of Battle of the Spanish Armada, 6 September 1639 (Orden de Batalla en media Luna). Total is 75 ships. Dates are now NS.

Name guns (squadron/type/commander etc.) - Fate

Santiago 60 (Castile) - Capitana Real or Royal Flagship. Escaped into Dunkirk, 1 November 1639
San Antonio (pinnace) (Masibradi) - Driven ashore 31 October
San Agustin (pinnace) (Martin Ladron de Guevara) - Driven ashore 31 October
Santa Teresa 60 (Portugal) - Don Lope de Hoces, commander. Destroyed in action 31 October
San Jeronimo
San Agustin (Naples) - Vice-Admiral. Driven ashore 31 October, sunk 3 or 4 days later
El Gran Alejandro (Martin Ladron de Guevara) - Taken by the Dutch
Santa Ana (Portugal)
San Sebastian
Santa Catalina (Guipuzcoa) - Driven ashore 31 October
San Lazaro
San Blas (Masibradi) - Driven ashore 31 October
San Jerónimo (Masibradi) - Burnt in the Downs 31 October
San Nicolas
Santiago (Castile) - Burnt off Dover on the night of 2 November
San Juan Bautista (Guipuzcoa) - Sunk 31 October
Esquevel 16 (hired Dane) - Captured 28 September
San Jose (Dunkirk)
Los Angeles (Castile) - Driven ashore 31 October
Santiago (Portugal) - Driven ashore 31 October
Delfin Dorado (Naples) - Driven ashore 31 October
San Antonio (Naples) - Driven ashore 31 October
San Juan Evangelista (Dunkirk)
El Pingue (hired ship) - Sunk in the Downs 31 October
San Carlos (Masibradi)
San Nicolas (Masibradi)
San Miguel
Orfeo 44 (Naples) - Lost on the Goodwin sands 31 October
San Vicente Ferrer (Dunkerque)
San Martin (Dunkerque)
Nuestra Senora de Monteagudo (Dunkerque) - Escaped into Dunkirk 1 November
Santiago 60? (Galicia) - Captured 31 October
? (flag of Masibradi) - Captured 28 September, retaken same day, escaped to Dunkirk, 1 November, wrecked 4 days later
Santo Tomas (Martin Ladron de Guevara) - Driven ashore 31 October
Nuestra Senora de Luz
Santa Clara
San Gedeon (Dunkerque)
San Jacinto
San Carlos (Dunkerque) - Sunk 31 October
Santo Cristo de Burgos (San Josef) - Lost off the French coast 31 October
San Paulo (Masibradi)
San Miguel
La Corona (hired ship)
La Presa or San Pablo La Presa (Castile)
San Esteban (Martin Ladron de Guevara) - Captured 31 October
San Pedro de la Fortuna (hired ship) - Driven ashore but got off, 31 October
Los Angeles (hired ship)
Aguila Imperial
La Mujer
Santo Domingo de Polonia (hired Polish ship) - Driven ashore 31 October
San Jose (flagship of Vizcaya) - Captured 31 October
San Salvador (flagship of Dunkirk) - Escaped into Dunkirk 1 November
São Baltasar (Vice-Admiral of Portugal) - 800 tons. Back at Lisbon in 1640
San Francisco 50? (Rear-Admiral of Dunkerque) - Escaped into Dunkirk 1 November
San Pedro el Grande (flagship of Ladron de Guevara)
Santiago (Martin Ladron de Guevara)
Jesus Maria (pinnace)
San Pedro Martir (urca) (hired ship) - Driven ashore 31 October
Fama (Urca) (hired ship) - Driven ashore 31 October
Santa Cruz (Masibradi)
San Daniel (Guipuzcoa) - Driven ashore 31 October
San Juan Evangelista (hired ship of Hamburg) - Driven ashore 31 October
Santa Agnes (frigate) (Naples) - Stranded but got off, 3 November
Grune? (Castile) - Driven ashore, 31 October 1639
Santa Teresa (Saetia) (Castile) - Taken by a French privateer 31 October
Exchange (hired English transport) - All 8 English transports put into Plymouth 13 September, and reached the Downs 22 October, where they were detained
Peregrine (hired English transport)
Assurance (hired English transport)
5 other hired English transports

See also

• Dunkirkers

References

• George Edmundson (1906). "Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange". in Adolphus William Ward. Cambridge Modern History, Cambridge University Press. 
• Oliver Warner (1981). Great Sea Battles, Cambridge Ferndale Edns. 
• R. B Prud'homme van Reine (2001). Schittering en schandaal - Biografie van Maerten en Cornelis Tromp, Arbeiderspers. 
• Francis Vere (1955). Salt in their blood: The lives of the famous Dutch admirals, Cassell. 
• J.C.M. Warnsick (1938). Drie zeventiende-eeuwsche admiraals. Piet Heyn, Witte de With, Jan Evertsen., van Kampen. 
• J.C.M. Warnsick (1941). 12 doorluchtige zeehelden, van Kampen.