Qualla: Battle of Lowestoft

Battle of Lowestoft: Introduction

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Memnon335bc, CC BY-SA 4.0. At around 3 p.m. on 13 June 1665, an explosion turned the eastern horizon white. The Dutch flagship Eendracht had taken a spark to her powder room, and Lieutenant-Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer, Lord Obdam, the man holding 26 articles of orders from Johan de Witt himself, was gone in an instant - along with most of his crew. Forty miles east of Lowestoft, more than two hundred warships were locked in the largest naval action the world had yet seen, and the man supposed to lead one of them no longer existed.

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Image: Memnon335bc | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Lowestoft: A War of Ledgers

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Memnon335bc, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Second Anglo-Dutch War was an argument about money dressed up as an argument about flags. England wanted a quick, decisive victory because the Crown's books could not stand a long war; the Dutch Republic needed to break an English blockade before its fishing fleets rotted at ...

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Image: Memnon335bc | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Lowestoft: The Wind Refuses

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit «ВЭС». (СПб; 1914 год)., Public domain. For two days the fleets shadowed each other, neither willing to attack. Obdam, knowing his squadrons were under-gunned and ill-disciplined, wanted to fight only with the wind at his back - so that if things went wrong, he could run. On the morning of the 13th, the wind finally se...

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Image: «ВЭС». (СПб; 1914 год). | Public domain

Battle of Lowestoft: Death of a Flagship

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Adriaen van Diest, Public domain. By mid-afternoon Obdam tried to break through Sandwich's Blue Squadron with five large ships. The giant East Indies hybrid Oranje, under captain Bastian Senten, even boarded the English Montague and briefly took her. James and William Penn turned the Royal Charles against the Een...

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Image: Adriaen van Diest | Public domain

Battle of Lowestoft: The Order in the Night

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Adriaen van Diest, Public domain. By 6 p.m. the Dutch fleet had come apart. Cornelis Tromp and Cornelis Evertsen fought a rearguard while what remained ran for Texel, the Maas, the Scheldt - anywhere but here. Eight Dutch ships had been sunk, nine more captured, and the Oranje burned to a wreck after losing perha...

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Image: Adriaen van Diest | Public domain

Battle of Lowestoft: What the Dutch Learned

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Willem van de Velde (I) (1611-1693), Public domain. Defeat shocked the Republic into reform. The seven-squadron tangle was abolished; new Fighting Instructions in August 1665 specified three squadrons with clear chains of command, better signalling, and concentrated fire. Three Dutch captains were shot in front of their crews for ...

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Image: Willem van de Velde (I) (1611-1693) | Public domain