Battle of Lowestoft The Battle of Lowestoft took place on 13 June ( New Style ) 1665 during the Second Anglo - Dutch War . A fleet of more than a hundred ships of the United Provinces commanded by Lieutenant - Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam attacked an English fleet of equal size commanded by James Stuart , Duke of York forty miles east of the port of Lowestoft in Suffolk , England . The Dutch were desperate to prevent a second English blockade of their ports after the first was broken off by the English only for lack of supplies . The leading Dutch politician , Johan de Witt , ordered Van Wassenaer to attack the English aggressively during a period of stable eastern winds which would have given the Dutch the weather gage . Van Wassenaer however , perhaps feeling that his fleet was still too inferior in training and firepower to really challenge the English in full battle , postponed the fight till the wind turned in order to seek a minor confrontation in a defensive leeward position from which he could disengage quickly and return without openly disobeying orders . His attitude would cost him a sixth of his fleet and his life . On 11 June Van Wassenaer sighted the English fleet of 109 ships carrying 4 , 542 guns and 22 , 055 men ; it consisted of three squadrons . The Dutch fleet of 103 ships carrying 4 , 869 guns and 21 , 613 men had no less than seven squadrons : The reason for the large number of squadrons was that the smaller Dutch admiralties — and the many new flag officers recently appointed by them — insisted on having their own squadron ; the Admiralties of Amsterdam and the Maas ( i . e . Rotterdam ) then split their fleets to make squadrons of equal size to those of the smaller fleets . Both national fleets could only be so large by employing armed merchants : the English used 24 of these ; the Dutch twelve , some of them enormous Dutch East India Company warships , specially brought over from the Indies . The Dutch also had activated eighteen laid up warships from the previous war . On 11 June there was a calm and no battle could take place . On 12 June the wind again started to blow - and from the east , giving Van Wassenaer the weather gage . However , he simply didn ' t attack , despite clear orders to do so under these conditions . Next morning the wind had turned to the west and now he approached the enemy fleet . The battle . See Battle of Lowestoft ship list for all the Dutch and English ships involved in the battle . It is difficult to give a strictly coherent account of the battle . Whilst there is a wealth of historical sources , these have never been properly studied . The English found the behavior of ' foggy Opdam ' ( as they would sometimes call him ) puzzling and ascribed all kinds of intentions to him that , in reality , he never had . After the defeat the surviving Dutch flag officers , in order to exonerate themselves , pretended their fleet had followed the original written orders , blaming misfortune and cowardice among the merchant captains for the disaster . In the early morning of the 13th the Dutch fleet was positioned to the southeast of the English fleet . Most English historians have assumed Van Wassenaer ( who on the 12 June had sent all of his silverware and other valuables home as to show how much confidence he had in himself ) made a sudden dash to the west , trying to regain the weather gage , and the English beat him to it . If so , the wind must have been blowing from the southwest — otherwise there was no gain in this manoeuvre — but this makes it difficult to explain how the English fleet , sailing to the south , could be swifter than the Dutch . An alternative interpretation , more in accordance with the Dutch sources , would be that the wind was blowing from the northwest and Van Wassenaer tried to engage the English from a defensive leeward position , his favorite tactic . Indeed both fleets passed in opposite tack and then turned . During the turn the " Great Charity " ( originally an Amsterdam Directors ' ship the " Groote Liefde " , captured during the Battle of Portland in 1653 ) became isolated and was boarded and captured by captain Jan de Haen , the later admiral , who immediately returned with his prize to the Netherlands , an obviously unsound practice that would be forbidden after this battle . Later an English victory tune " The Dutch Armado A Meer Bravado " declared : " Fortune was pleasant when she lent the Dutch our ' Charity ' a thing they wanted much " . After this there was a second pass . Though the English had some trouble controlling these manoeuvres , the Dutch now completely failed to maintain a line of battle . In theory their being in a leeward position would have given their guns a superior range , allowing them to destroy from a safe distance the rigging of the English ships with chain - shot . In reality the several squadrons began to block each other ' s line of sight , those flagofficers and captains most hungry for battle left the less enthusiastic and older ships quickly behind , while company ships — never trained in these tactics — behaved as if no other vessels were present and this disorder caused a part of the English line to shift over some heavier Dutch ships who only just managed to escape to their main force . Later they would claim they had intentionally tried to directly attack the enemy in accordace with general orders . Some other ships happened to be in an optimal range for the English to concentrate their fire and took heavy damage . The young life of the commander of the Frisian fleet , Lieutenant - Admiral Auke Stellingwerf , was ended when he was shot in two . Veteran Lieutenant - Admiral Kortenaer , probably the most competent Dutch commander present , was fatally wounded in the hip by a cannonball . Quartermaster Ate Stinstra took command of Kortenaer ' s ship . Van Wassenaer now suspended the squadron command structure , hoping by placing all ships directly under his own guidance to bring some coherence to the Dutch force . This only added to the confusion however . Again both fleets turned . And now something strange happened that has proven very difficult to explain . After the manoeuvre the English rear should obviously have been to the north of the centre . All sources agree however that it resulted in a reversed order of the English fleet in that the rearguard was now to the " south " of the centre . The traditional English solution to this riddle has been that their fleet tacked synchronously , i . e . each individual ship turned simultaneously to reverse fleet order , instead of turning one behind the other . If true that would have been a truly unique accomplishment for that age . Dutch sources suggest a different explanation : while executing the third turn the Dutch fleet lost all coherence because the wind suddenly turned to the southwest . It then slammed into the English van and centre . The English rear , avoiding the mass of confused ships , sailed behind the Dutch fleet to the south . A flotilla from the van then closed the trap completely , blocking the intended return to the Dutch coast . This scenario explains why all manoeuvring stopped and why some English flotillas clearly report trying to sail to the west , which would be inexplicable if they hadn ' t been to the " east " of the Dutch fleet . If indeed surrounded the Dutch would have been in a hopeless position . The English main force to the west of them would have had the weather gage precluding boarding as a viable tactic . The English rear , firing from a leeward position , could have damaged the Dutch with impunity . As the Dutch had again the weather gauge in relation to the English rear , some of their ships wore to the east to attack it . Through such an action Montague ' s flagship was boarded and temporarily taken over by the crew of " Oranje " , commanded by captain Bastian Senten , who even raised the Dutch flag on the " Prince Royal " until Rupert himself in the " Royal James " came to the rescue retaking the ship . At that point , the entire battle seems to have degenerated into a gigantic shapeless mêlée . During these fights the Earl of Marlborough and the Earl of Portland perished . A few hours later around noon Montague raised the blue squadron flag on his mizen topmast - " A sign for my squadron to follow " - and indeed most captains of the English rear followed their leader when he went straight for the Dutch ' line ' and broke through it ( most likely he sailed through a gap ) effectively dividing the Dutch fleet and surrounding part of it ( if the traditional English scenario is true now for the first time a part only of the Dutch fleet was surrounded ) . Apart from these positional problems the Dutch had a structural disadvantage : on average their guns were much lighter . Especially the eight largest English vessels were almost unsinkable themselves but could wreck the smallest Dutch ships with a single broadside . The larger Dutch vessels therefore tried to protect the little ones . The Dutch flagship " Eendracht " duelled the " Royal Charles " . James was nearly killed by a Dutch chain - shot decapitating several of his courtiers , The Hon . Richard Boyle ( Son of Richard Boyle , 1st Earl of Burlington ) , The Viscount Muskerry and The Earl of Falmouth who was not very highly thought of , prompting the " poet of state affairs " ( probably Andrew Marvell using the name of John Denham ) to later declare : " His shatterd ' head the fearless duke disdains , and gave the last first proof that he had brains " . Around three in the afternoon the duel between the " Royal Charles " and the " Eendracht " ended abruptly when the " Eendracht " exploded , killing Van Obdam and all but five of the crew . Kortenaer was second in command ; though fatally wounded he hadn ' t died yet and the other Admirals were unaware of his condition . For hours the Dutch fleet was therefore without effective command . After the " Eendracht " had exploded , the English immediately became more aggressive , while many Dutch captains faltered : some Dutch ships already fled a little later , followed by Kortenaer ' s ship the " Groot Hollandia " now commanded by Stinstra . Needless too say all of this had a rather negative effect on Dutch morale . By evening most of the Dutch fleet was in full flight , save for 40 ships or so under Vice - Admiral Cornelis Tromp and Lieutenant - Admiral Johan Evertsen , both having assumed command ( showing the utter confusion on the Dutch side ) , who made possible an escape and covered the flight , thus preventing complete catastrophe , though 16 more ships were lost . The English lost only one ship , the captured " Great Charity " mentioned above . Eight Dutch ships were sunk by the English ; six of these were burnt in two separate incidents when they got entangled while fleeing and set ablaze by a fire ship : this happened to the " Tergoes " entangling with the company ship the " Maarseveen " and the merchantman the " Swanenburg " ; and also to the " Koevorden " , the " Stad Utrecht " and the " Prinse Maurits " . The earlier mentioned company ship the " Oranje " exploded after being set on fire by another fire ship following many an attempt to block , board and enter the " Charles " ; in which she was prevented first by the " Mary " under captain Jeremiah Smith ( the " Mary " would lose 99 men of its crew ) , one of York ' s seconds , and later by the " Royal Oak " , the " Essex " and the " Royal Katherine " . According to some the " Oranje " lost half of its crew of 400 before succumbing , a severely wounded Senten ( rumoured to be an expatriate Scotsman ) was picked up by an English vessel and shortly after succumbed himself . During the Dutch flight the English captured nine more ships : " Hilversum " , " Delft " , " Zeelandia " , " Wapen van Edam " and " Jonge Prins " ; the VOC - ship " Nagelboom " and the merchants " Carolus Quintus " , " Mars " and " Geldersche Ruyter " . " Tromp " was captured but escaped . Eight older ships had to be written off later , as the costs of repair would have exceeded their value . The English had lost one flag officer : Rear - Admiral Robert Samsun , while Vice Admiral Lawson was mortally wounded . Notable English captains present at the battle included Captain of the Fleet William Penn in the " Royal Charles " , ex - buccaneer Christopher Myngs and George Ayscue . It has always been a mystery why the English fleet didn ' t at least try to pursue the Dutch . Several anecdotes are told to explain this . According to one Penn remarked to James that he was looking forward to the heavy fighting the next day — since he believed the Dutch were at their best when cornered . James , having narrowly escaped death already , then would have lost his nerve completely . Another legend has it that James ' s wife ordered Lord Henry Brouncker to keep her husband safe ; he obeyed by giving flagcaptain John Harman the false order to stop the " Charles " in the night . In any case the " Royal Charles " reduced sail in the course of the evening and the rest of the English fleet followed suit . The outcome of the battle was partially caused by an inequality in firepower , but the Dutch had already embarked on an ambitious expansion programme , building many heavier ships . The English failed to take advantage of their victory . They never managed an effective blockade of the Dutch coast and couldn ' t prevent the VOC - fleet from returning from the Indies ( Battle of Vågen ) . The fleets , now much more equal in quality , met again at the Four Days Battle in June 1666 .