On Sunday morning the Dutch were near Boulogne, where the fight was renewed, but with little effect. Tromp had slipped away in the dark with his merchantmen to Calais sands, where he anchored that day with forty sail; the wind favouring him, he thence tided it home, our fleet pursuing but slowly; for Blake, though he feared not Dutchmen, yet dreaded their shallow coasts: however, the Captains Lawson, Martin, and Graver, took each a Dutch man-of-war, and Penn picked up many of their merchantmen. On the whole, the Dutch had the better of the fight the first day, lost ground the second, and were clearly beaten the third. They lost eleven men-of-war—their own accounts say but nine—thirty merchantmen, fifteen hundred men killed, and as many wounded. As for the English, they lost only the Sampson, which Captain Batten, finding disabled, sank of his own accord; though it is certain our loss in killed and wounded was little inferior to that of the Dutch.
Van Tromp now convoyed a great fleet of merchantmen by the north, trying that route to escape the difficulties of the channel; whereupon our navy followed him to Aberdeen, yet to no purpose: for he escaped them both going and coming back, which gave him an opportunity of coming into the Downs, making some prizes, and battering Dover Castle. This scene of triumph lasted but a week; for on May 31st Tromp had intelligence that Monk and Deane, who commanded the English fleet, were approaching, and that their whole fleet consisted of ninety-five sail of men-of-war and five fire-ships. The Dutch had ninety-eight men-of-war and six fire-ships, and both fleets were commanded by men the most remarkable for courage and conduct in either nation; so that it was generally conceived this battle would prove decisive.
On June 2nd, in the morning, the English fleet discovered the enemy, whom they immediately attacked with great vigour. The action began about eleven o'clock, and the first broadside from the enemy carried off the brave Admiral Deane, whose body was almost cut in two by a chain-shot. Monk, with much presence of mind, covered his body with his cloak: and here appeared the wisdom of having both admirals on board the same ship; for as no flag was taken in the fleet had no notice of the accident, and the fight continued with the same warmth as if it had not happened. The blue squadron charged through the enemy, and Rear-admiral Lawson bid fair for taking De Ruyter; and after he was obliged to leave his ship, sank another of forty-two guns commanded by Captain Buller. The fight continued very hot till three o'clock, when the Dutch fell into great confusion, and Tromp saw himself obliged to make a kind of running fight till nine in the evening, when a stout ship, commanded by Cornelius van Velsen, blew up. This increased the consternation in which they were before; and though Tromp used every method in his power to oblige the officers to do their duty, and even fired upon such ships as drew out of the line, yet it was to no purpose, but rather served to increase their misfortune. In the night Blake arrived in the English fleet with a squadron of eighteen ships, and so had his share in the second day's engagement.
Tromp did all that was consistent with his honour to avoid fighting the next day; but he would not do more, so that the English fleet came up with him again by eight in the morning and engaged with the utmost fury; the battle continued very hot for about four hours, and Vice-admiral Penn boarded Tromp twice, and had taken him, if he had not been seasonably relieved by De Witte and De Ruyter. At last the Dutch fell again into confusion, which was so great, that a plain flight quickly followed; and, instead of trusting to their arms, they sought shelter on the flat coast of Newport, from whence, with difficulty enough, they escaped to Zealand. Our writers agree that the Dutch had six of their best ships sunk, two blown up, and eleven taken; six of their principal captains were made prisoners, and upwards of fifteen hundred men. Among the ships before-mentioned, one was a vice-admiral and two were rear-admirals. The Dutch historians, indeed, confess the loss of but eight men-of-war. On our side, Admiral Deane and one captain were all the persons of note killed; of private men there were but few, and not a ship was missing; so that a more signal victory could scarcely have been obtained, or, indeed, desired. After this victory the Dutch sent ambassadors to England to negotiate a peace almost on any terms.
The states were, however, far from trusting entirely to negotiations, but, at the time they treated, laboured with the utmost diligence to repair their past losses and to fit out a new fleet. This was a very difficult task; and, in order to effect it, they were forced to raise the seamen's wages, though their trade was at a full stop; they came down in person to their ports, and saw their men embarked, and advanced them wages beforehand, and promised them if they would fight once more they would never ask them to fight again.
Yet all this would hardly have sufficed if the industry of De Witte, in equipping their new-built ships, and the care and skill of Van Tromp in refitting their old ones, and encouraging the seamen, had not succeeded in equipping a fresh fleet, of upwards of ninety ships, by the latter end of July, a thing admired then, and scarcely credible now. These were victualled for five months; and the scheme laid down by the states was to force the English fleet to leave their ports by coming to block up ours. But first it was resolved Van Tromp should sail to the mouth of the Texel, where De Ruyter, with twenty-five sail of stout ships, was kept in by the English fleet, in order to try if they might not be provoked to leave their station, and thereby give the Dutch squadron an opportunity of coming out.
On July 29th, 1653, the Dutch fleet appeared in sight of the English, upon which the latter did their utmost to engage them; but Van Tromp, having in view the release of De Witte, rather than fighting, kept off; so that it was seven at night before General Monk in the Resolution, with about thirty ships, great and small, came up with him and charged through his fleet. It growing dark soon after nothing more passed that night, Monk sailing to the south and Van Tromp to the northward, by which, unsuspected by the English, he both joined De Witte's squadron and gained the weather-gauge. The next day proving very foul and windy, the sea ran so high that it was impossible for the fleets to engage, the English particularly finding it hard enough to avoid running upon the enemy's coasts.
On Sunday, July 31st, the weather having become favourable, both fleets engaged with terrible fury. The battle lasted at least eight hours, and was the most hard fought fight of any that happened during the war. The Dutch fire-ships being managed with great dexterity, many of the large vessels in the English fleet were in the utmost danger of perishing by them, and the Triumph was so effectually fired, that most of her crew threw themselves into the sea; and yet the few who stayed behind succeeded in extinguishing the flames. Lawson engaged De Ruyter briskly, killed and wounded more than half his men, and so disabled his ship that it was towed out of the fleet; whereupon the admiral, returning in a galiot, went on board another ship. About noon, Van Tromp was shot through the body with a musket-ball, as he was giving orders. This effectually discouraged his countrymen, so that by two they began to retreat in great confusion, having but one flag standing among them. The lightest frigates in the English fleet pursued them closely, till the Dutch admiral, perceiving they were but small and of no great strength, turned his helm and resolved to engage them; but some larger ships coming to their assistance, the Dutchman was taken. It was night by the time their scattered fleet reached the Texel, while the English, fearing their flats, rode warily about six leagues off.
This was a terrible blow to the Dutch, who, according to Monk's letter, lost no less than thirty ships; but from better intelligence it appeared that four of these had escaped, two into a port of Zealand, and two into Hamburg. Their loss, however, was very great; five captains were taken prisoners, between four and five thousand men killed, and twenty-six ships of war either burnt or sunk. On the side of the English there were two ships only, viz., the Oak and the Hunter frigate burnt, six captains killed, and upwards of five hundred seamen. There were also six captains wounded and about eight hundred private men.
The parliament then sitting ordered gold chains to be sent to the Generals Blake and Monk, and likewise to Vice-admiral Penn and Rear-admiral Lawson; they sent also chains to the rest of the flag-officers, and medals to the captains. August 25th was appointed for a day of solemn thanksgiving; and, General Monk being then in town, Cromwell, at a great feast in the city, put the gold chain about his neck, and obliged him to wear it all dinner-time. As for the states, they supported their loss with inexpressible courage and constancy, and buried Tromp with great magnificence at the public expense.