page_title: Holmes's Bonfire
section_title: First day
hierarchical_section_title: Holmes's Bonfire / The Raid / First day
caption_attribution_description: English: Vlieland. Satellite view.
context_page_description: Holmes's Bonfire was a raid on the Vlie estuary in the Netherlands, executed by the English Fleet during the Second Anglo-Dutch War on 19 and 20 August 1666. The attack, named after the commander of the landing force, Rear-Admiral Robert Holmes, was successful in destroying by fire a large merchant fleet of 140 ships. During the same action the town of West-Terschelling was burnt down, causing outrage in the Dutch Republic.
context_section_description: Holmes on Thursday 19 August, the adverse southeasterly having eased to a breeze, around 8:00 AM entered the Vlie, using Tyger as his flagship and leaving Hampshire and Advice behind as a covering force. Normally the shifting shoals would have made an approach very difficult but Holmes had a stroke of luck. On the 17th the Garland had taken a Danish merchantman with a Dutch pilot on board who Holmes found more capable than Heemskerck, whose knowledge of the shoals Holmes found to have been very exaggerated; it also transpired that part of the buoyage had not been removed; this had been ordered by the Admiralty of Amsterdam but on the 18th the English were already so close that the official 'buoy man' had not dared to complete the job. Also the Admiralty had some days before ordered all ships to return to the home port, at a penalty of six guilders per day, but almost none had complied; most ship-owners had explicitly given orders to stay, to be able to sail immediately at the end of the English blockade. Holmes and his new-found pilot personally reconnoitred the channel in the Fanfan, and discovered that a large merchant fleet was indeed present, estimated at fifty vessels. Ultimately, Holmes found a fleet of about 140 merchantmen or smaller vessels at anchor — by himself estimated at about 150 to 160 —, guarded by two light frigates, the Vollenhove commanded by Captain Adelaer and the Middelhoven under Captain Van Toll. The crews of the ships were very confident of their ability to repulse an attack and many villagers from the islands had even brought their possessions aboard, assuming these to be more safe there than on land, where they expected the brunt of the English attack would be directed.
  Indeed, Holmes had been ordered to give priority to the shore installations on Vlieland. However, when his Tyger as first ship arrived at the Reede van Speckhoeck anchorage (Whalers' Moorage or Schelling Road), west of the Hobbesandt shoal, to his puzzlement he saw only a tiny village, Oost-Vlieland, on this island and interrogation of some prisoners confirmed that no important buildings were present there. Meanwhile, behind him Garland and Dragon, with difficulty beating up the wind on a tacking course through the Westerboomsgat, had grounded; Dragon would only be able to free herself by throwing eight of her cannon overboard and the beer supply. In these circumstances Holmes considered it unwise to commit his landing force, covered by only a handful of frigates, to an attack on what basically was an empty dune area, while expecting the enormous merchant fleet with thousands of sailors to remain passive to his south in the Vlieree (Vlie Road) while this was going on. He therefore decided to attack this fleet first. According to some, Holmes was also specially inspired by the opportunity to damage the Dutch economy. He would later justify his initiative by claiming that he lacked the landing capacity to attack Vlieland because all ketches had grounded.
  Holmes didn't dare to venture any further with his frigates — he was at his position almost enclosed by shoals — so, with the exception of the shallow-draughted Pembroke, the assault was carried out around 13:00 by the five fireships, sailing somewhat to the north into the Robbegat channel, the entrance of the Vliestroom, where most of the merchant fleet stretched out from north to south over a distance of ten miles. Their success was complete. On their approach three large armed merchantmen, commanded to assist the guard ships, lost courage and fled. The first fireship managed to set the attacking Dutch frigate Vollenhove alight, most of the Dutch crew, among them Adelaer, drowning when their fleeing sloop capsized; when the next approached Middelhoven, the crew of the latter abandoned ship, rowing away in some sloops. This second fireship grounded however; seeing this the Dutch crew of a sloop turned; then the English fireship crew also entered a sloop, both sloops racing to be the first to reach Middelhoven. The English won and set the Dutch warship on fire. The other three fi
caption: Satellite image of Vlieland, with the Vlie estuary to the north; despite it being flood tide, the mudflats are visible below the water surface
exif: {}