Battle of Dungeness The naval Battle of Dungeness took place on 10 December 1652 ( 30 November in the Julian calendar then used by England ) during the First Anglo - Dutch War near the cape of Dungeness in Kent . Background . In October 1652 the English government , mistakenly believing that the United Provinces after their defeat at the Battle of the Kentish Knock would desist from bringing out a fleet so late in the season , sent away ships to the Mediterranean . This left the English badly outnumbered in home waters . Meanwhile the Dutch were making every effort to reinforce their fleet . Battle . On 1 December 1652 Lieutenant - Admiral Maarten Tromp , again ( unofficial ) supreme commander after his successor Vice - Admiral Witte de With had suffered a breakdown because of his defeat at the Battle of the Kentish Knock , set sail from Hellevoetsluis with 88 men of war and 5 fireship s , escorting a vast convoy bound for the Indies . With the convoy safely delivered through the Straits of Dover , Tromp turned in search of the English , and on 9 December 1652 he encountered the English fleet of 42 ships commanded by General at Sea Robert Blake . The English promptly left their anchorage in the Downs , either because Blake did not realize how large the Dutch fleet was , or he did not want to become trapped like the Spanish had some years earlier in the Battle of the Downs . The wind was now strong from the north - west , so the English could not return to the Downs in either case , having to settle for Dover . Next morning , the two fleets moved south - west , with the English hugging the coast and the Dutch unable to engage until the curve of the shoreline forced the English to turn on a southerly course . At about 15 : 00 , near the cape of Dungeness , the leading ships of both fleets met in a " bounteous rhetoric of powder and bullet " ( according to a contemporary account ) . The wind prevented a large part of the Dutch fleet from engaging Blake , whose fleet by nightfall had lost five ships of which the Dutch captured two , and damaged many more . The Dutch lost one ship through fire . Blake retreated under cover of darkness to his anchorage in the Downs . Tromp could not be satisfied with the result however as the Dutch had missed an opportunity to annihilate the English . Aftermath . The battle resulted in several reforms in the English Fleet . Part of Blake ' s force consisted of impressed merchant vessels that retained their civilian captains . Many of them refused to participate in the battle . Some naval captains insisted on their traditional right to enter and leave the battle at times of their choosing , and to leave formation in order to secure any prize . Blake threatened to resign if something was not done . The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty responded by : The victory gave the Dutch temporary control of the English Channel and so control of merchant shipping . A legend says that Tromp attached a broom to his mast as a sign that he had swept the sea clean of his enemies , but in his book " The Command of the Ocean " , N . A . M . Roger doubts the legend as such a boasting action would have been out of character for Tromp . Additionally , at the time , a broom attached to a mast was the way of showing that a ship was for sale . Also Dutch contemporaneous sources make no mention of it . The battle not only showed the folly of dividing forces while the Dutch still possessed a large fleet in home waters , but exposed " much baseness of spirit , not among the merchantmen only , but many of the state ' s ships " . It seemed that the captains of hired merchant ships were reluctant to risk their vessels in combat , while the state ' s ships lacked the men to sail and fight them . Ships involved : England ( Blake ) . " Triumph " 60 ( flag ) < br > " Victory " 60 ( Lionel Lane ) < br > " Vanguard " 58 ( John Mildmay ) < br > " Fairfax " * 56 ( John Lawson ) < br > " Speaker " * 54 ( John Gilson ) < br > " Laurel " 50 ( John Taylor ) < br > " Worcester " 44 ( Anthony Young ) < br > " Entrance " 43 ( Edmund Chapman ) < br > " Lion " 42 ( Charles Saltonsall ) < br > " Convertine " 42 < br > " Foresight " 42 < br > " Dragon " 40 < br > " Fortune " 36 < br > " Hound " 35 < br > " Sapphire " 34 < br > " Princess Maria " 33 < br > " Mary flyboat " 32 < br > " Waterhound " 30 < br > " Dolphin " * 30 ( William Badiley ) < br > " Advantage " 26 ( William Beck ) < br > " Swan " * 22 < br > " Greyhound " * 20 < br > " Hannibal " * 44 ( Francis Barham ) < br > " Anthony Bonaventure " 36 ( Walter Hoxon ) - Captured < br > " Lisbon Merchant " 34 < br > " Loyalty " * 34 < br > " Culpepper " 30 < br > " Cullen " 28 < br > " Prudent Mary " 26 < br > " Samuel " 26 < br > " Martha " 25 < br > " Katherine " * 24 < br > " Exchange " 24 < br > " Acorn " 22 < br > < / div > Ships marked * are probables . Netherlands ( Tromp ) . " Brederode " 56 ( flag )