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The Raid on the Medway was a naval engagement during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
The Second Anglo- Dutch War.
The king of England's fleet had already been reduced to accomodate the restrictions of recent expenditure and the Dutch seized
their opportunity well. Sir Edward Spragge learned that a Dutch raiding party had come ashore on the Isle of Grain. (a
peninsular where the river Medway in Kent, meets the river Thames). Musketeers from the Sheerness garrison opposite were sent to investigate, as reports were widespread of a Dutch fleet in the the
Thames.
Charles II instructed the Duke of Albemarle (Lord George
Monck) to go to Chatham to take charge of matters and further ordered Prince Rupert to organize the defences at Woolwich, three days later.
Commissioner Pett, at Chatham Dockyard sent a pessimistic message to the Navy
Board prompted by the arrival of Van Ghent's squadron off Sheerness. The Dutch fleet carried about a thousand soldiers, and
landing parties were dispatched on Canvey Island in Essex and opposite on the Kent side at Sheerness. In letters to the Navy Board Pett lamented the absence of Navy senior officials whose help and advice
he believed he needed.
As events progressed two members of the Navy Board, Sir John Mennes and Lord Brouncker, travelled to Chatham, followed on the
11th June by the Duke of Albemarle. When Albemarle arrived he reported that he could find only twelve of the eight hundred
Dockyard men expected.
After raising the alarm on the 6th June at Chatham dockyard, Pett seems not to have taken any further action until 9th when,
late in the afternoon a fleet of about 30 Dutch ships were sighted in the Thames, at this point the Commissioner immediately
sought assistance from the Admiralty.
The additional command structure was to become unwieldy early on leading to instructions being countermanded by various
officers, even conflicting instructions were given, leading to great confusion all round.
The Dutch fleet arrived at the Isle of Sheppey on the 10th June, and launched an attack on Sheerness Fort. Captain Jan van
Brakel in the Vrede, followed by two other men-of-war, sailed as close to the fort as possible to engage it with cannon fire. Sir
Edward Spragge was in command of the ships at anchor in the river Medway
and those off Sheerness, but the only ship able to defend against the Dutch was the Unity, a frigate stationed off the fort.
The Unity was supported with a number of ketches and fire ships at Garrison Point, and the incomplete Fort of Sheerness where
sixteen guns had been hastily placed. The Unity fired one broadside at the approaching Dutch, but then, when a blazing Dutch
fireship bore down on her, she beat a retreat up the Medway, followed by the English fire ships and ketches. The unremitting
Dutch assault on the Fort led it to be finally abandoned, it having been discovered that some 800 Dutch troops had landed about a
mile away. With Sheerness thus lost, Spragge sailed up river for Chatham.
Pett proposed that several small ships be sunk in Upnor Reach near the castle, presenting another barrier to the Dutch should
they break through the chain at Gillingham. The defensive
chain placed across the river had been lying practically nine feet under the water between its stages owing to its weight. River
defences were hastily improvised with 'blockships' sunk, and the chain across the river was guarded by batteries.
The positions of the Charles V and the Matthias just above the chain were adjusted to enable them to bring their broadsides to
bear upon it. The Monmouth was also moored above the chain, positioned so that she could bring her guns to bear on the space
between the Charles V and Matthias.
De Ruyter advanced up the Medway on June 12th passing Upnor Castle with scant opposition attacking any ships lying above that
point. The following day the whole of the Thames side as far up as London was in a panic and some of the finest vessels in
the navy, including the Royal James, the Loyal London, and the Royal Oak, perished, while the Royal Charles, was captured and
carried off.
The following day Pepys writes of the Royal Charles being taken "..which Pett should have carried up higher by our several
orders, and deserves therefore to be hanged for not doing it."
He later concedes that impression given him by Naval Captains that "...nothing but carelessness lost the (Royal Charles), for
they might have saved her..., if they ... had but boats, and that the want of boats plainly lost all the other ships.
On Tuesday morning the Royal Charles had been moved higher up the river with the help of a pilot. The Royal Charles, had
remained exposed at her moorings for want of the boats and crews Pett needed to remove her, these having been sent on other
tasks. Some shipwrights with their boats and crews were allocated to carry out the operation which was ordered by Peter Pett
and during the morning of 11th Jun, with the Royal James taken up to a new position just above Upnor Castle.
It was commonly understood that Charles himself was at fault for his failure to prepare the fleet, it was said "they did in
open streets yesterday at Westminster, cry. 'A Parliament! a Parliament!'; and I do believe it will cost blood to answer for
these miscarriages": (Pepys).
It is doubtful that the Dutch would have been able to reach Chatham at all if Sheerness Fort had been completed, a
Parliamentary report on the occasion concluded that the sinking and burning of what ships remained at Chatham was the only means
available of preventing the Dutch from gaining control of the Medway on this very account.
Significantly upon the following day "Word was brought me that Commissioner Pett is brought to the Tower and there laid up
close prisoner which puts me into a fright, lest they may do the same with us as they do with him. This puts me upon hastening
what I am doing with my people, and collecting out of my papers our defence" (Pepys).
Commissioner Pett was bailed at £5000/~ and deprived of his Office whilst those who had ignored his earlier warnings quietly
escaped any blame. Pett was thus compelled to defended his own actions and stood alone, discredited for the negligence of
others.
The Dutch Admiral De Ruyter had after all captured Sheerness
Fort a full two days prior to his invasion of the Medway, having broken through the heavy chain that was strung across the river
representing its meagre outer defences.
‘On the 13th June, when (the) Dutch frigates and sloops led the Fleet up the river, Upnor Castle was fired upon and the
Castle batteries returned the ship’s fire. The Dutch lost ten ships, but their advance was not halted and four English
ships lying of Upnor Castle were sunk or burnt. The Dutch sailed on towards Rochester, where the inhabitants had fled into the countryside.’ Peypes visited the Castle on
behalf of the Admiralty, after the engagement and was forced to concede that the fort had been under gunned and garrisoned.
It seems that the boats and crews nominated by Pett to move the Royal Charles, were taken from that task and commanded
elsewhere by the Duke of Albemarle himself that Tuesday 11th June 1667. Most of the other ships and boats had already been lost
in the panic that prevailed when the news reached Chatham that the Dutch were at Sheerness.
In a sketch made by John Evelyn on the hill above Gillingham the ships in
the Medway were all recorded in detail, including the chain, with the Unity moored just below it, with the Charles
V and Matthias moored just above it. The Monmouth lay just beyond them in Gillingham Reach, and above her,
as far as Rochester Bridge was the Royal Charles, Sancta Maria, Royal Oak, Loyal London,
Royal James, Catherine, Princess, Old James, Triumph, Rainbow,
Unicorn, Henry, and Vanguard; also two former Dutch vessels, the Guilden Ryiter and the
Helverson.
External link Ref: Day by day account:
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