On the morning of the 19th this great assemblage of ships, largely exceeding in number and still more in tonnage the combined fleets of Medina Sidonia and Lord Howard of Effingham, was off the Isle of Wight. The wind was at W.N.W., which gave the weather-gage to the English, but it was very gentle, and the day was advanced before the English admirals could force an action. As his enemy had now his whole force in hand, Tromp applied himself solely to the protection of his convoy. He sent his merchant ships on ahead, and formed his men-of-war in a half-moon, or rather obtuse angle, with his own flagship, the Brederode, in the apex—that is to say, the other ships were formed in two slanting lines branching out to right and left of Tromp himself. Thus it was impossible for the English to attack the merchant ships, either from N.W. or from S.E., without breaking through the Dutch men-of-war. The action of this day began late, and led to no decisive results, though the English claimed to have taken a few small ships. It can easily be believed that they succeeded in disordering the formation of the Dutch—a very difficult one to maintain; and the bad conduct of several of the Dutch captains near the Kentish Knock makes it credible that some of them were also guilty of misconduct on this occasion. The States General had not shown sufficient firmness in using the trees of Holland for the purpose indicated by Cornelius Witte de With.
The decisive day of the "Three days' battle" was the last. On the morning of the 20th the wind had increased, and the English fleet, not being hampered by heavily laden merchant ships, had no difficulty in overtaking the enemy. A close action was forced as early as nine o'clock in the morning. Both fleets were now approaching the entry to the Straits of Dover. The English were to the north of their enemy, and they steered so as, if possible, to head him before he reached Cape Gris Nez and so cut his road home. The Dutch ships either did not, or could not, serve as an effectual protection to the merchant vessels. Tromp formed his line of battle, and did his own duty with the utmost steadfastness and courage. But the English broke through. The credit of the movement belongs to Penn, who as vice-admiral had been leading the van. Between fifty and sixty merchant ships fell into our hands, and as many more men-of-war as made up the total of our captures to seventeen. Yet the English failed in their main purpose. They did not succeed in heading the Dutch before they rounded Cape Gris Nez, and by dark Tromp anchored his whole force, now in great confusion, in Calais Roads. Under cover of night, and by taking skilful advantage of the ebb-tide, which on that coast makes a north-easterly current, as also of the thick and squally weather which came on after sundown, he carried off all that remained of his convoy. In spite of our successes on the 20th, this was still the great bulk of his merchant ships.
These three days of fighting had cost the English fleet very dear. Both Blake and Deane were wounded, and the loss in captains and men was heavy. The victory had by no means been so complete as had been hoped, but it was not the less a subject of legitimate gratification to England. The general superiority of the English fleet whenever it was intelligently handled, and not hopelessly outnumbered, had been proved, and the country had good grounds for believing that if the war with Holland was pushed with energy, its enemies would be driven off the sea. For the moment the fleet at the mouth of the Straits was in no condition to pursue the Dutch. When day broke on the 21st, the enemy had disappeared. The English fleet found itself alone, with some sixty prizes. It had suffered much damage to its masts and spars. With the wind at N.W. it was on a lee shore, and a gale, or even a very stiff breeze, would have put it in a position of some danger. The decision to make for an English port was both natural and proper. To put their prizes in a place of safety was the natural instinct of the men who looked to their prize-money for the larger part of their reward; and as Tromp had had time enough to carry his convoy into the dangerous shallows of the Dutch coast, there was nothing to be gained by pursuing him. The generals therefore returned to St. Helen's and anchored on the 23rd. Squadrons were sent out both to east and west of the Isle of Wight, but there was no longer any enemy at sea.
The "Three days' battle" was the turning-point of the war. Hitherto the Dutch had fairly divided the honours with ourselves, but from this time forward the upper hand passed decisively to the English fleet. The ships were stronger, and the crews in the main fought better. War is in the last result decided in favour of one combatant or other by power to win at the actual moment of contact. This power was with the English and not with the Dutch, and therefore all the skill and patriotism of Martin Tromp and his lieutenants, Witte de With and Michael de Ruyter, could do no more than postpone the final disaster, and provide that if the flag of Holland were to go down, it should at least sink with honour.
Before the final decisive struggle was fought out, there was an interval, during which active operations languished. Both fleets stood in need of repairs; for if the Dutch had lost severely, not a few of our own vessels had been compelled to drag themselves into Portsmouth so severely crippled that they were in need of a thorough refit. The work of getting the English fleet ready for sea once more was not discharged without difficulties and delay. The Navy Committee had many obstacles to overcome before its squadrons could be put in order to continue the war. There was a great want of men. The sailors no longer volunteered in any large numbers, and the press was ill enforced. Colonel Overton, the governor of Hull, found the local magistrates so lax in their discharge of their duty that he was provoked into threatening to send them to sea in default of sailors. The unpopularity of the navy was due to causes of long standing. One of these, at least, endured throughout the whole course of our wars. It was discovered under the rule of the Commonwealth that the seamen had not lost that preference of the privateer to the man-of-war they had shown during the reign of Elizabeth. Blake had complained of the competition of these partisan fighters of the sea at the very beginning of the war. Government was constrained to put a severe check upon them, partly by limiting the issue of letters of marque to vessels of a certain size, and partly by giving men-of-war captains the right to press sailors from the privateers. There were also very genuine causes of discontent to deter men from volunteering into the service of the State. Under the pressure due to the immense demands made upon its treasury, the Commonwealth had become a bad paymaster. Not only were the salaries of officers and men in arrear, but the contractors were slowly paid, and, taking advantage of the power given them by the position of creditor to the State, they supplied their goods late, and of inferior quality. In the summer of 1653 one Captain John Taylor reported to the Admiralty that the men belonging to the ships at Chatham had refused to do anything towards taking the ballast in or getting it out, or, in fact, to put their hand to the work of fitting the ships for sea. Their excuse was the defective state of the victuals and beer. Captain Taylor had to confess that "they have brought me beer, bread, and butter, worse than I ever saw in the dearest times." The beer was particularly vile, and the brewer protested that he could not make it any better, because he was only paid three shillings and sixpence a barrel. The men found it so bad that they actually preferred to drink water. The crews imputed their sickness to the state of the victuals, and there is every probability that they were right.
That the condition of the sick and wounded was deplorable is proved by the testimony of many witnesses. Thus Dr. Daniel Whistler, who was sent down to Portsmouth in March to attend on General Blake, gives a terrible picture of the state of those who, after being wounded in the "Three days' battle," were landed at Portsmouth. There was no hospital. The wounded men were left for hours in the streets before the Navy Commissioners could find lodgings for them in private houses. When they were lodged, the surgeons very often did not know where to find them, there was a want of linen and medicines, of wholesome food and good nursing. The houses were overcrowded, and nothing was done to protect men against the temptation to drink ardent spirits, which was especially strong at Portsmouth, where the water was brackish. Four months later, Monk himself drew a hardly less dismal picture of the condition of the wounded at Ipswich, Aldeborough, Southwold, and Dunwich. The payments due for their support were irregularly made, and the inhabitants, we are told, were weary of them. Monk was compelled to stand security at his own personal risk in order to raise money for the purpose of helping his unfortunate sailors, lying sick and wounded in the houses of people who in some cases were as poor as themselves, and in others were mere harpies.
These evils were no doubt primarily due to want of money, but they can also be accounted for by the utter want of any organisation capable of dealing with the demands of war on an unprecedented scale. The Council of State fought hard to meet the necessities of the times, and when it had been swept out of the way by Cromwell's expulsion of the Long Parliament on the 19th of April, the Council of the Protector continued these efforts. Thus, in December 1652, a number of proposals for the encouragement of seamen had been made and accepted. They were divided into three sections. The first dealt with the sick and wounded men. They were promised that their pay should be continued until their health was restored, and it was decided that a general hospital should be erected at Deal. Some hospitals in London were to be given up wholly to sick and wounded seamen, and so were half the other hospitals in other parts of England. It was at this date that the wages of able seamen "fit for the helm and lead, top and yard," were raised from 19s. to 24s. a month, with a deduction of 1s. for the chaplain and surgeon, according to the ancient custom. This substantial benefit was accompanied by profuse promises of fairer treatment in future. Another section of the propositions was devoted to the shares in prizes. A bonus of a month's salary was offered to every man who, having served six months, or upwards, since the beginning of the war, would volunteer for the coming year. In order to remove "the many and great disappointments caused by the present way of sharing prizes," it was provided that in future 10s. per ton should be paid for every vessel taken, and £6, 13s. 4d. for every piece of ordnance, "this to be shared amongst them proportionately, according to their respective offices in the ship, and the custom of the sea." What was probably not less agreeable to the sailors was an order that they should have the pillage, that is to say, the right to appropriate at once, as booty, whatever was found on or above the gun-deck of a prize, while a reward of £10 per gun was to be paid for every vessel destroyed. If they could have been fairly carried out, these conditions would have done much to reconcile men to the navy, but, as has been already said, the chronic want of money both of the Council of State and, in later times, of the Protector, drove them to fail in their promises of payment, and to lay hands upon the money in the possession of the Commissioners of Prizes. Yet these Governments strove hard to make both ends meet, and did resolutely endeavour to stop pilfering in the administration of the navy. By expedients and hard work they contrived to keep powerful fleets at sea in an efficient condition.