Qualla: Battle of Schooneveld https://qualla.com/battle-of-schooneveld en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:32 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/s/battle-of-schooneveld-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Schooneveld https://qualla.com/battle-of-schooneveld Battle of Schooneveld: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-schooneveld/ Photo credit Romeyn de Hooghe (1645-1708), Public domain. The Dutch admirals had a private nickname for their own fleet that summer. They called it Little Hope. Against the combined Anglo-French armada of Prince Rupert of the Rhine, they were outmatched in every measurable dimension: eighty-six ships against sixty-four, twenty-four thousand men against fifteen thousand, almost five thousand cannon against barely three thousand. Behind them, the Dutch Republic was already half-drowned by the Holland Water Line, its own emergency flooding intended to stop a French army that had walked through the country the previous summer. The plan for Schooneveld was simple and grim: fight in water shallow enough that numbers stopped mattering, and trust that Granddad knew what he was doing.

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Image: Romeyn de Hooghe (1645-1708) | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/s/battle-of-schooneveld-wp/u14s-battle-of-schooneveld-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Schooneveld: A Country Cornered https://qualla.com/battle-of-schooneveld/ Photo credit Public domain. By the spring of 1673, the Dutch Republic was fighting for its existence. Louis XIV's armies had invaded by land in 1672 from France, Munster, and Cologne. England's navy under King Charles II had attacked Dutch shipping and threatened a seaborne invasion that would put six thous...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/s/battle-of-schooneveld-wp/u14s-battle-of-schooneveld-a-country-cornered.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Schooneveld: Granddad on the Quarterdeck https://qualla.com/battle-of-schooneveld/ Photo credit Willem van de Velde the Elder, Public domain. Michiel de Ruyter was sixty-six years old and the most respected sailor in Europe. His own crews called him Bestevaer, Granddad, with an affection that was earned. He had quietly refused William's order to purge the fleet of officers loyal to the old States regime, and he distrus...

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Image: Willem van de Velde the Elder | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/s/battle-of-schooneveld-wp/u14s-battle-of-schooneveld-granddad-on-the-quarterdeck.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Schooneveld: The First Battle https://qualla.com/battle-of-schooneveld/ Photo credit Willem van de Velde the Elder, Public domain. On 7 June 1673, after a false start the previous week, Prince Rupert tried to lever de Ruyter out of the Schooneveld basin between two shoals at the mouth of the Schelde. He detached a fast squadron to cut off the Dutch retreat north. De Ruyter did not retreat. He sailed instead ...

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Image: Willem van de Velde the Elder | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/s/battle-of-schooneveld-wp/u14s-battle-of-schooneveld-the-first-battle.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Schooneveld: The Second Battle https://qualla.com/battle-of-schooneveld/ Photo credit Willem van de Velde the Elder, Public domain. The allies cruised off the Dutch coast for a week recriminating. Spragge wrote that the first battle was as ill fought on our side, as ever yet I saw. Captain George Legge of the Royal Katherine wrote home, that hole is too little and the sands too dangerous for us to venture amo...

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Image: Willem van de Velde the Elder | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/s/battle-of-schooneveld-wp/u14s-battle-of-schooneveld-the-second-battle.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Schooneveld: What the Republic Bought https://qualla.com/battle-of-schooneveld/ Photo credit Willem van de Velde the Elder, Public domain. The French lost two ships in the first battle, and both sides suffered heavy damage, but the damage was severe enough that the allied fleet limped into the Thames for repairs and abandoned the blockade. The Dutch lost one ship, the seventy-gun Deventer, which grounded and sank th...

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Image: Willem van de Velde the Elder | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/s/battle-of-schooneveld-wp/u14s-battle-of-schooneveld-what-the-republic-bought.mp3 0:06 6 full