Affair of Fielding and Bylandt The Affair of Fielding and Bylandt refers to a brief naval engagement off the Isle of Wight on 31 December 1779 between a Royal Navy squadron , commanded by Commodore Charles Fielding , and a naval squadron of the Dutch Republic , commanded by rear - admiral Lodewijk van Bylandt , escorting a Dutch convoy . The Dutch and British were not yet at war , but the British wished to inspect the Dutch merchantmen for what they considered contraband destined for France , then engaged in the American War of Independence . Bylandt attempted to avoid the engagement by offering the ships ' manifests , but when Fielding insisted on a physical inspection , Bylandt put up a brief show of force , before striking his colours . The British then seized the Dutch merchantmen and conducted them as prizes to Portsmouth , followed by the Dutch squadron . The incident worsened the diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the Dutch Republic almost to breaking point . It also contributed to the formation of the First League of Armed Neutrality to which the Dutch acceded in December , 1780 . To prevent their receiving assistance from other members of that League , Britain declared the Fourth Anglo - Dutch War shortly afterwards . Background . The Dutch Republic had , after a period of strife during the second half of the 17th century , become a steadfast ally of the Kingdom of Great Britain , initially ( after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 ) as the senior partner in the alliance , but later in the 18th century as the increasingly junior partner . It was bound to Britain by a number of treaties of military alliance ( notably those of 1678 , 1689 and 1716 ) which arguably obligated it to offer armed support . On the other hand , it had obtained in the Treaty of Breda and its offshoot , the Commercial Treaty of 1668 ( confirmed in the Treaty of Westminster ) an important concession from England : the right to transport non - contraband goods in its ships to countries with which Britain was at war , without these goods being subject to seizure by Britain even if they were owned by subjects of belligerent powers ( this was usually referred to as the principle of " free ship , free goods " ) . The concept " contraband " was narrowly defined in these treaties as " arms and munitions . " So - called " naval stores " ( by which were commonly understood : ship ' s timbers , masts and spars , rope , canvas , tar and pitch ) were not to be considered contraband . This right became important during wars in which Britain was a participant , but the Republic remained neutral , like the Seven Years ' War and after 1778 the American Revolutionary War , in which Britain opposed the rebelling American Colonies and their allies , France and Spain . It exempted Dutch bottoms arguably from inspection by the Royal Navy ( or at least from confiscation of the goods in British prize court s ) , thereby undermining Britain ' s ability to maintain an effective embargo on the trade of her enemies , especially because Dutch shipping at the time still played a major role in the European carrying trade . Though public opinion in the Republic became more and more sympathetic to the American Revolution in the years after 1776 , the Dutch government that was dominated by stadtholder William V and his autocratic regime , inclined to support the British . However , the highly federalized structure of the Republic prevented the central government from effectively interfering with the commerce of cities like Amsterdam , which conducted a highly profitable trade with the American rebels ( exchanging arms and munitions for colonial wares , like tobacco ) via the entrepôt of the Dutch West India Company in its colony of St . Eustatius . The Amsterdam merchants also supplied France with naval stores , which that country needed for its naval construction , but was unable to procure itself in Norway and the Baltic countries , due to the British blockade . The Republic as a " neutral " power was therefore very useful for the French and their war effort . Britain , of course , viewed these developments with disfavour , and tried to force the Dutch government to put a stop to them . Diplomatic means failed , however . The Republic refused to provide military assistance in the form of the " loan " of its mercenary Scottish Brigade , when Britain requested that brigade for service in America . It also ( reluctantly ) provided shelter in Dutch territorial waters for the squadron of the American privateer John Paul Jones in 1779 , and refused to embargo the export of arms and munitions . These refusals were due to the influence of Amsterdam , but also to diplomatic counter - pressure of France , exerted by its highly able ambassador Paul François de Quelen de la Vauguyon . When diplomatic means did not suffice , Britain resorted increasingly to seizure of what it considered " contraband " in Dutch bottoms on the high seas by the Royal Navy and British privateer s . This elicited howls of protest from the affected merchants , for which the Dutch government at first remained deaf . France then started to exert pressure on the Dutch government to " defend its treaty rights " by selectively subjecting the Dutch cities , that supported the stadtholder in his opposition to taking countermeasures against the British " depredations , " to economic sanctions . This soon convinced those cities to fall in line with Amsterdam and start clamouring for escort by Dutch naval vessels of convoys of merchantmen . The States - General of the Netherlands ( the governing body of the Republic ) changed its position in November , 1779 and ordered the stadtholder , in his quality of commander - in - chief of the Dutch armed forces , to start offering " limited " convoy services to Dutch shipping . This despite the fact that the Dutch navy , because of long neglect , had become only a shadow of its former self . The 20 ships of the line that were not too old to serve , were no match for the British ships armed with 90 or 80 guns . According to the Dutch historian De Jonge the Royal Navy at the time had 137 ships of the line and France 68 . After much discussion the States - General had decided on a programme of naval construction in 1778 . Twenty - four new ships of the line were to be built , but this programme progressed only slowly , mainly because only the province of Holland paid its share of the cost . None of the new ships were as yet available . This did not bode well for a future naval conflict between the Republic and Great Britain and may help explain a certain lack of enthusiasm in the Dutch navy to engage in such a conflict . It should be noted that though the Republic did not concede the British interpretation of the Commercial Treaty that naval stores were to be considered contraband after all , the stadtholder prevailed in his policy of nevertheless excluding such stores from the convoys , to minimize friction with the British . The incident . When the first convoys were prepared in December 1779 ( one to the West Indies , under Rear - Admiral Willem Crul , and another to France and the Mediterranean under Rear - Admiral Count Lodewijk van Bylandt ) , the stadtholder gave written instructions that these should exclude ships that transported naval stores ( as he at the time understood that the British defined those : in essence ships ' timbers ) . He also prohibited allowing ships from " nations not recognized by the Republic " ( i . e . the ships of John Paul Jones ) to become part of the convoys . Finally , he enjoined Bylandt to avoid anything that might jeopardize the neutrality of the Republic . The squadron of Admiral Bylandt departed from the Texel on 27 December 1779 . It consisted of the his flagship , the 54 - gun ship of the line " Prinses Royal Frederika Sophia Maria " , the 40 - gun " Argo " ( Captain Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen ) , the 44 - gun " Zwieten " ( Captain Nauman ) , the 26 - gun " Valk " ( Captain Silvester ) and the 26 - gun " Alarm " ( Captain Mulder ) . They escorted 17 Dutch merchantmen . After progressing calmly a few days through the English Channel the convoy encountered a British squadron in the morning of 30 December . This consisted of the 90 - gun , flying the broad pennant of Commodore Fielding , the 74 - gun ships ( Captain Thomas Allen ) , ( Captain J . N . P . Nott ) , ( Captain James Bradby ) and ( Captain Samuel Goodall ) , the 60 - gun HMS " Buffalo " ( Captain H . Bromedge ) , the 50 - gun ( Captain Anthony Hunt ) , the 32 - gun ( Captain Samuel Marshall ) , the 20 - gun ships ( Captain Isaac Prescott ) and ( Captain Richard Rodney Bligh ) , the 12 - gun ( Captain Richard Murray ) and the 8 - gun ( Captain M . Cole ) . " Courageux " hailed the Dutch flagship and asked for a parley to which Bylandt agreed . Fielding then sent a boat with two parlimentaire s , one of which was his flag captain Marshall . Marshall demanded Bylandt ' s acquiescence in a physical inspection of the Dutch merchantmen by the British . Bylandt replied that such a request was unprecedented as in peacetime the " bona fides " of the naval escorts of the convoy were usually accepted when the commanding officer asserted on his word of honour that the convoy did not transport contraband . He produced the manifests of the ships in the convoy and sworn statements of the captains of the merchantmen that they did not transport contraband , and added that he had personally satisfied himself that the convoy did not contain ship ' s timbers , though the Dutch did not consider this contraband . Marshall asked whether the ships carried hemp or iron ( he apparently was well informed ) and Bylandt admitted that they did and that this had never been considered contraband . Marshall replied that according to the British these particular commodities now constituted contraband . Seeing that he would not get any further with Marshall , Bylandt then sent his own flag captain , his nephew Frederik Sigismond van Bylandt , to the " Namur " to negotiate directly with Fielding . This failed to produce agreement . Fielding announced that he would start searching the Dutch vessels the next morning ( as night had now fallen ) and the younger Bylandt replied that in that case the Dutch would open fire . During the night twelve of the Dutch merchantmen managed to slip away so that the next morning the convoy only existed of the remaining five ships . Fielding now closed in with three of his ships of the line ( " Namur " and two 74s ) but was blocked by Bylandt with " Prinses Royal " , " Argo " and the frigate " Alarm " ( the other two Dutch ships were out of reach ) . Nevertheless , " Namur " sent a launch to one of the Dutch merchantmen and " Prinses Royal " then fired two shots across its bow to make it veer away . About what happened next the British and Dutch versions differ . According to Bylandt and his captains in their depositions under oath during his court martial the three British ships immediately fired a broadside , to which the Dutch ships replied with one broadside of their own . According to Fielding he fired a single shot , which was answered by a broadside , to which the British answered with broadsides of their own . After this exchange of fire Bylandt immediately struck his colours and signalled the other Dutch ships to do the same . This was remarkable , as the Dutch standing orders explicitly prohibited Dutch ships from surrendering if they were still capable of fighting , even when the flagship surrendered . It transpired at Bylandt ' s court martial that he had given sealed orders to his captains before departure from the Texel that they had to surrender when he gave a designated signal . He later explained that he had written these secret orders , because he foresaw that he would be confronted with an overwhelming superiority in numbers and guns , against which resistance would be useless . He had decided to offer only token resistance in such a case , just enough to " satisfy honour " , but that it was imperative to restrain his captains of undue displays of courage in such a case , as that would defeat his purpose of avoiding needless bloodshed . This was a typical example of 18th - century warfare that more than modern warfare was aimed at avoiding needless casualties . The British interpreted the striking of the colours as it was intended : to break off the fight and not a real surrender . They made no attempt to board the Dutch warships . Fielding proceeded with his inspection of the five merchantmen and duly arrested them when he found the " contraband " hemp . He then sent a message to Bylandt allowing him to rehoist his colours and proceed on his way . Bylandt replied , however , that he would stay with the merchantmen . Possibly annoyed by this , Fielding then demanded that the Dutch warships would salute the British flag as was his right under the several Anglo - Dutch treaties . Normally the Dutch did not object to this procedure , but in this case Bylandt hesitated . However , to avoid a needless firefight , and because he wished to carefully observe the treaties ( as in his view Fielding had failed to do ) , so strengthening the Dutch case for presenting the British as aggressors , Bylandt complied under protest with this demand . Dutch public opinion would hold it against him . Finally the British sailed with their captives to Portsmouth , followed into port by Bylandt , who sent a complaint to the Dutch ambassador in Britain , count Van Welderen , as soon as he arrived . Aftermath . Dutch public opinion was understandably outraged , both by the British action and by what they considered Bylandt ' s pusillanimity , that in the view of many amounted to cowardice , if not treason . To defend his honour Bylandt then demanded a court martial to clear his name . This blue - ribbon panel , consisting of no less than seven admirals , soon acquitted him of all charges brought against him though his secret surrender orders required some suppleness of mind in explaining them away . However , the prosecutor delivered a statement for the prosecution that might easily have been taken for a statement for the defense , thereby giving a strong impression of a whitewash to contemporaries ( though not to sympathetic historians like De Jonge ) . Many even suspected that Bylandt ' s conduct was the result of a conspiracy by the stadtholder to support the British . As a consequence of the political unrest , the stadtholder had to cease his resistance to unlimited convoy . The Dutch would henceforth try to defend their full treaty rights , to the satisfaction of France , which suspended its economic sanctions . The British , on the other hand , ceased all pretence of respecting those treaty rights . In April , 1780 the British abrogated the Commercial Treaty of 1668 , and declared that they would henceforth treat the Dutch like any other neutral , without benefit of " free ship , free goods . " Meanwhile , however , Empress Catherine II of Russia , shocked by the incident and even more by a similar mistreatment by Spain of two Russian ships , decided to issue a manifesto in which she demanded respect of the " free ship , free goods " principle for all neutrals by the belligerents . France and Spain were quick to comply ( Spain issued abject apologies ) , but Britain , of course , demurred : the declaration was mainly aimed at the practices of the Royal Navy . Catherine then started negotiations with other neutral powers , including the Republic , to form what was to become the League of Armed Neutrality . The Republic saw an opportunity in it to protect itself from the British attacks on its trade without having to join the war against Great Britain . However , the Dutch overplayed their hand by asking for a guarantee of their colonies by the other members of the League . This Catherine was loath to grant . Eventually the Dutch settled for what was on offer and joined the League in December , 1780 . The British then negated this gambit by declaring war on the Dutch for ostensibly unrelated reasons , thereby providing the other members of the League with an excuse to withhold their armed assistance to the Dutch . The Fourth Anglo - Dutch War had started .