Saint Helena has a known history of over 500 years since its recorded discovery by the Portuguese in 1502. Claiming to be Britain's second oldest colony, after Bermuda, this is one of the most remote settlements in the world and was for several centuries of vital strategic importance to ships sailing to Europe from Asia and South Africa. Since the early 19th century, the British occasionally used the island as a place of exile, most notably for Napoleon Bonaparte, Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo and over 5,000 Boer prisoners.
Tristan da Cunha is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha and has a history going back to the beginning of the 16th century. It was settled by men from military garrisons and ships, who married native women from Saint Helena and the Cape Colony. Its people are multi-racial, descended from European male founders and mixed-race and African women founders.
HMS Sceptre was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 8 June 1781 at Rotherhithe. The ship was wrecked in a hurricane on 5 November 1799 in Table Bay near the Cape of Good Hope.
The Pacific Squadron was part of the United States Navy squadron stationed in the Pacific Ocean in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially with no United States ports in the Pacific, they operated out of storeships which provided naval supplies and purchased food and obtained water from local ports of call in the Hawaiian Islands and towns on the Pacific Coast. Throughout the history of the Pacific Squadron, American ships fought against several enemies. Over one-half of the United States Navy would be sent to join the Pacific Squadron during the Mexican–American War. During the American Civil War, the squadron was reduced in size when its vessels were reassigned to Atlantic duty. When the Civil War was over, the squadron was reinforced again until being disbanded just after the turn of the 20th century.
The Governor of Saint Helena is the representative of the monarch in Saint Helena, a constituent part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. The governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government. The current governor of Saint Helena has been Nigel Phillips since 13 August 2022.
Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest was a Dutch naval officer from Vlissingen who served as Lieutenant Admiral of Zeeland and Supreme Commander of the Confederated Dutch Navy. Of a family that included several other naval admirals, including his father, Evertsen is noted for his distinguished service during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Franco-Dutch War, the Glorious Revolution invasion, and the Battle of Beachy Head during the Nine Years' War.
The Dutch corvette Scipio was launched in 1784. She convoyed Dutch East Indiamen between the Cape of Good Hope and Europe until HMS Psyche captured her at Samarang in 1807. The British Royal Navy initially referred to her as HMS Scipio, but then renamed her to HMS Samarang in 1808. She was not commissioned in the Royal Navy. She was instrumental in the capture of Amboyna and especially Pulo Ay, and participated in the invasion of Java (1811). She was sold at Bombay in 1814. She then entered mercantile service, sailing between Liverpool and India until 1827. She became an opium trader sailing between India and Canton, and was broken up near Hong Kong in August 1833.
Sir Richard Munden (1640–1680) was a Commodore in the Royal Navy. He was the elder son of Sir Richard Munden (1602–1672) of Chelsea; the younger son was Rear-Admiral Sir John Munden.
British Bencoolen was a possession of the British East India Company (EIC) extending nearly 500 miles along the southwestern coast of Sumatra and centered on the area of what is now Bengkulu City. The EIC established a presence there in 1685, and in 1714 the EIC built Fort Marlborough there. A local datoo allowed EIC to build the fort in order to protect the settlement from the Dutch.
The East Indies theatre of the French Revolutionary Wars was a series of campaigns related to the major European conflict known as the French Revolutionary Wars, fought between 1793 and 1801 between the new French Republic and its allies and a shifting alliance of rival powers. Although the Indian Ocean was separated by vast distance from the principal theatre of the conflict in Western Europe, it played a significant role due to the economic importance of the region to Great Britain, France's most constant opponent, of its colonies in India and the Far Eastern trade.
The Invasion of the Cape Colony, also known as the Battle of Muizenberg, was a British military expedition launched in 1795 against the Dutch Cape Colony at the Cape of Good Hope. The Dutch colony at the Cape, established and controlled by the United East India Company in the seventeenth century, was at the time the only viable South African port for ships making the journey from Europe to the European colonies in the East Indies. It therefore held vital strategic importance, although it was otherwise economically insignificant. In the winter of 1794, during the French Revolutionary Wars, French troops entered the Dutch Republic, which was reformed into the Batavian Republic.
Swallow was a teak-built packet ship that the British East India Company (EIC) launched at Bombay in 1779. She made nine trips between India and Britain for the EIC between 1782 and 1803. Her most notable exploit occurred on her seventh voyage, when she helped capture seven Dutch East Indiamen on 15 June 1795. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1804 and named her Lilly. She served in the navy until she was sold in 1811. During this time she participated in the capture of La Désirade island, and participated in a quixotic and unsuccessful attempt of General Francisco de Miranda to liberate the Province of Venezuela from Spain in 1806. Her whereabouts between 1811 and 1815 are obscure, but in 1815 J. Lyney, of London, purchased her and she sailed to the West Indies and to India as an EIC-licensed vessel until she wrecked on her way to Calcutta in 1823.
Carron was launched at Bombay Dockyard in July 1792. She was a country ship that made several voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) before the Royal Navy purchased her in 1804 to use as a fifth-rate frigate, and renamed Duncan. In 1807 the Navy renamed her Dover. She was wrecked off Madras on 2 May 1811.
Houghton was launched in 1782 and made six voyages as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). In 1794 she was part of an EIC squadron that had some success against French privateers and naval vessels in the Sunda Strait, and then in 1796 she participated as a transport in the British capture of St Lucia. She was sold in 1799 and her owner took her out to India to work in the tea trade between India and China. She foundered in 1803.
Britannia was launched by the Bombay Dockyard in 1772, and was rebuilt in 1778. The British East India Company (EIC) apparently acquired her in 1775. Between 1779 she made eleven complete voyages as an East Indiaman for the EIC. She also participated in three naval campaigns, during the first of which she was deployed as a cruiser off Sumatra. There she engaged and captured a French ship. In the other two she served as a transport. She set out for her twelfth EIC voyage but was lost in 1805 during the third naval campaign.
Charles de Courbon, comte de Blénac was a French colonial administration who served as governor general of the French Antilles during the 17th century. He was an experienced soldier and fought for the king during the Fronde before becoming a naval officer in the French Navy. Towards the end of the Franco-Dutch War he led the land forces that captured Tobago from the Dutch before taking command of the French Antilles. During the Nine Years' War he was active in the struggle with the English and Dutch in the Windward Islands. He captured Sint Eustatius and Saint Kitts, and defended Martinique against a large English expedition in 1693.
The invasion of the Spice Islands was a military invasion by British forces that took place between February and August 1810 on and around the Dutch owned Maluku Islands also known as the Spice Islands in the Dutch East Indies during the Napoleonic wars.
The island of Saint Helena, currently part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, maintained a military reserve force at various times between the 17th and 20th centuries. The first force, a feudal militia, was established in 1673 by the East India Company, who had first settled the island, in response to a Dutch invasion and short-lived occupation. The East India Company divided the island into tenancies with each required to provide a certain number of men for the militia. This fell into disuse as the defences of the island were improved. Saint Helena was taken over by the British Crown in 1833 and, keen to reduce the regular garrison, the militia was reinvigorated. An ordinance was passed drafting every able-bodied man into the Local Militia, though this was soon reduced to a core of around 360 men. This militia must have fallen into disuse by the later part of the 19th century as a new force, the St Helena Volunteer Sharpshooters, was established in 1897. Numbering around 100 men sources conflict on whether it was maintained beyond the withdrawal of the regular British garrison in 1907. It had certainly been disbanded by 1998.
The Dutch Raid on North America, or also known as the Dutch Raid on America, or The Dutch naval campaign of 1672-1674 took place during December 1672 to February 1674, it was part of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, a related conflict of the Franco-Dutch War. A naval expedition led by the Zeeland admiral Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest attacked English and French possessions in North America, supported by Jacob Binckes. Although they recaptured the former Dutch colony of New Netherland, it was returned to England under the terms of the Treaty of Westminster (1674) and the raid marks the end of direct Dutch influence in colonial North America.
On 9 August 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War a combined Dutch fleet commanded by Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest of the Admiralty of Zeeland and Jacob Binckes of the Admiralty of Amsterdam recaptured New York, which had been English since the Peace of Breda of 1667. The town of New York was re-christened "New Orange" and New Netherland was re-established as a Dutch colony under governor-general Anthony Colve. The Dutch Republic, however, returned the colony to English rule under the Treaty of Westminster (1674), in exchange for the colony of Suriname, which eventually led to the replacement of governor Colve by governor Edmund Andros on 10 November 1674 (N.S.)
Dutch Republic 
