The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1914-01-08
Was a Dutch Fleet Captured BY
Cavalry?

There have been many unuSue
occurrences related in history, whicl
took their rise either from some in
cident or from some myth, and wer
introduced into song and story I'm
til it became a foregone conclusion
that they were authentic. One 0
the most strange of these is thu
story of how a Dutch feet was cap
tured by cavalry through beint
frozen up so that thew could no.
get away. In most every history O
the French revolutionary wars this
story is repeated with variations.
The waters in which the feet was
icebound are said by some writer's
to have been the Zuider Zee and by
others the Kiver Il at Amsterdam
but wherever the fleet lay the cav
airy galloped over the ice with
drawn swords and attacked the
ships, the crews of which, 10000
strong, with guns and firearms, were
so terror-stritken that they surrend-
cred to squadron of hussars, slip
ping about on the ice.
What are the facts? Early in
January, 1895, P. Chegru, holding
Belgium, invaded the United Pro-
vince on the invitation of the Dutch
patriots" He was able to cross
the frozen rivers and gain firm
position in the country. On the 18th
the Stakeholder abandoned Holland
to it's fate; P. chegru then cajoled
the States-General into receiving the
French as friends and liberators, and
succeeded in obtaining an order for
all fortresses to open their gates to
his army.
On January Fl the Admiral COM
manding the Dutch fleet received
similar order, which he passed on, so
that when on the 23rd the French
officer sent to take over the fleet ar
rived with an escort of cavalry at
the Helder, he had only to present
himself before the flagship, anchor
ed not far from the shore, fur the
fifteen warships, with number of
store ships and tenders, to be for
mally handed over to him, and he
was then entertained at dinner on
board.
Such being the facts how did the
legend, if it is such, arise 1t is very
doubtful if the feet was fast in ice.
The short deep inlet from the North |
Sea to the Zuider Zee. about two
miles long and as much wide, be-
tween the Helder in North Holland
and the island of Texal, with seven
teen to twenty fathoms of water On
the Nieuwe deep side, could scarce
ly have been frozen over. Such ice
as might form or might drift out
from the Zuider Zee could easily |
have been broken up by the crews
of the fleet THERE'S no mention of
the feet being beset by ice in the
reports to the States General of the
The French official re-
port said / o: that the fleet was fast
in the ice, b it that it was stopped
at the Helder by ice, which may
mean that it was stopped from en-
tering the shallow and easily fir zen
waters of the Zuider Zee. A month
after the event Carnot congratulat
ed the Committee of Public Safety
on the surrender of the Dutch fleets
when they might nave sailed off to
Eng and.
VIE is the foundation of the
legend, the grain of fact on which it
has been built? 1t is believed that
it arose from the circurns; ance that
On e entrance OF the French army
into Amsterdam few Huzzars rode
over the ice probably with great
care and their horses feet we'll wrap
ped up, to the two gunboats which
were fast in the ice of the River Il.
This ride was certainly with no hos
tile object. 1t was probably a friend
ly visit, for the visitors were enter
tanned met cen extra oorlam,' with
an extra issue of grog. This escapade
is probably the source of not only
the legend, but also of the confusion
between the River II and the an
chorage in the Helder in the accounts
given b. the historians.
Mr. John G. Alger, whose "Glimps-
es of the French Resol tion," have
done so much to expose the myths
of that period of splendid mendacity
has, in his page On the alleged cap
ture of the Dutch fleet by cavalry.
himself fallen into this same mis-
take of place. He states that the
fleet was lying one hundred yards
off Amsterdam"