The Battle of Camperdown was a major naval action fought on 11 October 1797, between the British North Sea Fleet under Admiral Adam Duncan and a Batavian Navy (Dutch) fleet under Vice-Admiral Jan de Winter. The battle, the most significant action between British and Dutch forces during the French Revolutionary Wars, resulted in a complete victory for the British, who captured eleven Dutch ships without losing any of their own.
The Admiralty of Friesland or Frisian Admiralty was one of the five Dutch admiralties of the Dutch Republic. Set up on 6 March 1596, it was dissolved in 1795 during the reforms by the Batavian Republic.
In the Vlieter incident on 30 August 1799, a squadron of the Batavian Navy, commanded by Rear-Admiral Samuel Story, surrendered to the British navy. The incident occurred during the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland. It occurred in the tidal trench between Texel and the mainland that was known as De Vlieter, near Wieringen.
Samuel Story was a vice admiral of the Batavian Republic Navy. He commanded the squadron that surrendered without a fight to the Royal Navy at the Vlieter incident in 1799.
The Battle of Camperdown was an important naval action of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought off Camperduin on the North Holland coast on 11 October 1797 between a British fleet under Admiral Adam Duncan and a Dutch fleet under Vice-Admiral Jan de Winter. The French Republic had overrun the Dutch Republic two years earlier, reforming it into the Batavian Republic. In early 1797, the Batavian Navy was ordered to sail to Brest and unite with the French Atlantic Fleet in preparation for an invasion of Ireland. Shortly afterwards, the British fleets were paralysed by the Spithead and Nore mutinies, in which the sailors refused to take their ships to sea until they were awarded better pay and conditions. For two months, the English Channel was undefended, but the Dutch failed to take the opportunity to sail from their harbour in the Texel: their preparations were not complete, and a small squadron of loyal British ships under Duncan convinced de Winter that the British fleet was at sea by sending nonsensical signals to fictitious ships over the horizon.
Johan Arnold Bloys van Treslong was a Dutch naval officer and Patriot. He started his naval career in 1772, serving as a midshipman with the Admiralty of the Maze. He served under the Dutch Republic on the North Sea, in the West Indies and in battle with Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean.
The Batavian navy was the navy of the Batavian Republic which was a continuation of the Staatse vloot of the Dutch Republic. Though thoroughly reorganized after the Batavian Revolution of 1795, the navy embarked on several naval construction programs which, at least on paper, made it a serious rival of the Royal Navy during the War of the Second Coalition. However, the Capitulation of Saldanha Bay, the Battle of Camperdown and the Vlieter incident showed that the navy did not measure up to that expectation. Nevertheless, the reorganizations proved to be durable, when the Batavian Republic was succeeded by the Kingdom of Holland, and later, the Kingdom of the Netherlands which makes the present-day Royal Netherlands Navy expected to trace its ancestry through it.
Castor was built at Delfshaven and launched in 1786. The British captured her at the capitulation of Saldanha Bay in August 1796. Because there was already an HMS Castor, they renamed her HMS Saldanha. After she arrived at Plymouth the Royal Navy fitted her as a receiving ship in November 1797; she was sold in 1806.
Dooitze Eelkes Hinxt was a Dutch navy officer. He was the son of Eelke Tabes Hinxt, a merchant captain from the city of Dokkum. Hinxt died on the ship of war Beschermer, due to the wounds he received during the battle of Camperdown.
The Prins Frederik Willem was a Dutch 68-gun third rate ship of the line of the navy of the Dutch Republic, the Batavian Navy, and the Royal Navy. The order to construct the ship was given by the Admiralty of the Meuse.
The Admiraal Tjerk Hiddes de Vries was a Dutch 68-gun third rate ship of the line of the navy of the Admiralty of Friesland, one of five provincial naval forces of the United Republic of the Netherlands' In 1795, following the French occupation of the Netherlands, this ship was taken over by the Batavian Republic, and in 1797 was captured by the Royal Navy.
Vrijheid was a Dutch 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the navy of the Dutch Republic, the Batavian Republic, and the Royal Navy. The order to construct the ship was given by the Admiralty of Amsterdam. The ship was commissioned in 1782.
The Staaten Generaal was a Dutch 74-gun third rate ship of the line which served in the navy of the Dutch Republic and the Batavian Republic. The order to construct the ship was given by the Admiralty of the Meuse. The ship was commissioned in 1786.
The Wassenaar was a Dutch 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the navy of the Dutch Republic and the Batavian Republic, and the Royal Navy. The order to construct the ship was given by the Admiralty of the Meuse. The ship was commissioned in 1781. In 1783/1784, the Wassenaar sailed to Batavia under Captain Gerardus Oorthuis.
The Capitulation of Saldanha Bay was the surrender in 1796 to the British Royal Navy of a Dutch expeditionary force sent to recapture the Dutch Cape Colony. In 1794, early in the French Revolutionary Wars, the army of the French Republic overran the Dutch Republic which then became a French client state, the Batavian Republic. Great Britain was concerned by the threat the Dutch Cape Colony in Southern Africa posed to its trade routes to British India. It therefore sent an expeditionary force that landed at Simon's Town in June 1795 and forced the surrender of the colony in a short campaign. The British commander, Vice-Admiral Sir George Elphinstone, then reinforced the garrison and stationed a naval squadron at the Cape to protect the captured colony.
Engelbertus Lucas was a Dutch naval officer, who as a rear-admiral, commanding a squadron of the Batavian Navy, was forced to surrender that squadron on 17 August 1796 at Saldanha Bay to a Royal Navy squadron under Vice-Admiral George Elphinstone.
Lieutenant admiral Engelbertus Lucas was a Dutch naval officer of the Batavian Navy, the royal navy of the Kingdom of Holland, the navy of the First French Empire, and the Royal Dutch Navy, rising to the highest rank in the latter navy, and becoming Minister for the Navy in the first Cabinet of the Dutch Prime minister Johan Rudolph Thorbecke from 1849 to 1851.
Batavier was a Dutch 56-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the navy of the Admiralty of Amsterdam. In 1795 she became part of the Batavian Navy, and on 30 August 1799 was captured by the Royal Navy, who retained her in various subsidiary roles until she was broken up in 1823.
Dutch Republic 
Batavian Republic 
Kingdom of the Netherlands 