Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-11-17

absolutely necessary to most or the
ships to make them at all battle
worthy. There had been the -Four
days Fight" of Rupert and Monk in
June and the great st. James day
fight in July, in the former Of which
the English were more than half de-
leated and in the latter victorious.
This was due to the bravado Of Van
rromp, who, in his eagerness to en-
gage the English White squadron be-
anne separated from the remainder
of the Dutch fleet under De Ruyter,
After five-hours' pounding with the
gun-muzzles of opponent ships often
.ouching, De Ruyter withdrew, leav-
ing Van Tromp to his fate, but that
officer also succeeded, though with
great loss, in eluding his pursuers.
In the fight the Dutch loss was 20
men-of-war and among their killed
and wounded (who numbered thou
sands), were four flag officers, Jan
rGversten, De Vries, Rudolf Coenders,
and Covert THoen. The English
losses were not Sc heavy, but 1t can
be gathered that the fighting was very
severe and that many vessels were
severely mauled.
The navy board realized that the
commander of the Gottenburg convoy
that year would need to be a man OF
resource and energy, for small con-
voy actions were taking place almost
daily, and that he would need to be
we'll supplied with warships Accord
.ngly they appointed Capt. Robert
Robinson to the command with his
pennant on the Warsplte. A year
earlier, when in command Of the Eliz-
abeth, Capt. Robinson had fallen in
with a convoy Of Dutchmen in the
Channel and had captured several,
a feat which he had followed up
with Opdam. When the Warspite,
the second Of her name was complet-
ed early in July, 1866, he was ap-
pointed -her,-aHd In the ST. James.
day fight, when she had only been
a fortnight in service, she engaged
and beat three of the enemy's shiee
at once. For four years Capt. Rob-
inson commanded the Warspite, and
was then transferred to Greenwich.
In 1870 he was in charge OF convoy
of merchantmen to Gibraltar, and got
them all through the bay in most
weather. He was knight
ed in 1878, commanded the Mon
mouth at the battle Of Barfieur, and
reached the rank Of commodore in
1878.
The ships under his command on
the expedition to Gottenburg were
the Warspite, which was nearly new,
and the Diamond, 48 guns, Dragon,
Constan Warwick, Jersey, st. Patrick,
Oxford, Nightingale, with a fireshlp,
the Malaga Merchant, all in as good
condition as the miserably parsimo-
nious administration Of the navy at
that time would permit. 1t was on
November %, 1866, that Capt. Robin
son and his fleet left England for Cot
tenburg, but on his arrival there he
found the convoy far from ready to
start. Many Of the merchantmen
had not come in, and others could
not get full crews, and on every hand
there were delays. 1t was not until
December IS that they put to sea,
and even then their troubles were
not all at an end. Two days out they
were caught in a furious storm, which
lasted until the 23d, and left the fleet,
which had originally numbered, with
out the warships, 70 vessels, with only
SO sail, all told.
Capt. Robinson knew we'll that this
was just the opportunity the Dutch
had been praying for. He dispatched
the Dragon and the Constant War
wick, together with the fire ship, to
pick up the stragglers they could find
and to rejoin the fleet with all posi-
BILE haste. But the Dutch had not
been asleep. One Of their small ves-
sells had put into Texal to report the
of the convoy, and the
Dutch admiral there sent out on
Christmas eve five ships to waylay
Capt Robinson. This squadron was
composed of three two-deckers, the
Cleen Harderwijk of 3S guns; the
Leijden and the Els, each of SO guns
a smaller frigate, and an armed
yacht. And at II o'clock on the
morning of Christmas day the two
forces met. Capt Robinson held his
course in line, the convoy being TO
leeward. The exact order In which
The vessels met Is not known, but ac-
cording to the fighting etiquette of
the day, the two flagships, the War
spite and the Cleen Harderwijk would
tackle each other, the Diamond and
the Jersey presumably engaged one
each Of the enemy's two-deckers, and
the oxford and Nightingale, each 20
gun ships, attacking the other Dutch
frigates. The yacht headed for the
but the st. Patrick
chased and captured her, rejoining
Can't Robinson with the prize next
day.
The effect of the tempest was still
felt in the heavy seas which were
running, and consequently the larger
vessels were, in the parlance Of the
day "muzzled", that is to say, the
lower gun ports had to be kept closed.
The lower tier guns were thus out of
action, and the ships became to all
intents and purposes one-tier vessels,
but the fight was none the less fast
and furious. Two Of the Dutch ves-
sells were burning at the end of two
hours, and two others, one Of them
the Cleen Haderwijk, we're nearly
totally dismasted. The Dutch