Surrender in the Vlieter

Surrender in the Vlieter (1799)

Part of: Second Coalition War

Handover of the Dutch Texel squadron to a British-Russian fleet in the Vlieter

date	August 30, 1799
place	between Den Helder and Wieringen , North Holland , Netherlands
output	Dutch surrender
consequences	British-Russian advance on Alkmaar

Parties to the conflict
Batavian Republic	Great Britain orangists Russia
Commander
Samuel Story	Andrew Mitchell, William of Orange , Mikhail Makarow
Troop strength
8 ships of the line, 3 frigates, 2 corvettes, 3,700 men	9 ships of the line, 6 frigates, 4 corvettes, 7,000 men, 2 ships of the line
losses
Handover of all 13 ships	no

The surrender in the Vlieter (Dutch also Vlieter episode ; English mostly Vlieter Incident , i.e. Vlieter incident ) on August 30, 1799 was the surrender of a Dutch naval squadron to the British Royal Navy without a fight . Mutinous naval officers delivered the last major task force of the Dutch navy to the British enemy. Despite this significant maritime strategic success, the British-Russian invasion of Holland , which began at the same time, failed as early as October 1799.

initial situation

See also : First Coalition War

During the First Coalition War , the Dutch ruling house of Orange, allied with Great Britain, was overthrown by Dutch patriots and French revolutionaries in 1795 and driven to England. The majority of the Dutch Admiralty, however, was still orientated towards orangist and was opposed to the newly founded Batavian Republic . With the help of the Orangists, the British had already succeeded in 1796 in convincing a Dutch squadron in South Africa to surrender without a fight ( surrender in Saldanhabucht ). Numerous other Dutch ships had been forced to surrender in the naval battle at Camperduin in 1797 .

British-Russian invasion of Holland

See also : Second Coalition War

While the elite of the French Revolutionary Army had been fighting in Egypt since 1798 ( Egyptian Expedition ), a second coalition against France had been formed. In 1799 the Austrians and Russians eliminated the subsidiary republics founded by the French in Italy, and together with the Russians, the British endeavored to destroy the Batavian Republic by landing in Holland and to reinstate the Orange.

A fleet of a total of 200 British and Russian warships and transports landed on August 27, 1799 up to 35,000 men in North Holland and defeated the Dutch troops at Callantsoog .

The last powerful Dutch squadron anchored in Den Helder had received an order from Dutch commander-in-chief Herman Willem Daendels to make the entrance to the Strait of Texel (the Marsdiep ) impassable by sinking some ships. However, the Dutch Rear Admiral Samuel Story missed or delayed the point in time, and when British and Russian warships entered the strait on August 28 and hijacked eight ships, he pulled himself with the remaining 13 Dutch ships through the narrow channel of the Vlieter into the shallow Zuiderzee back. After their home port Den Helder, which had been bravely defended to the end, had capitulated and on August 30 a superior British fleet under Vice Admiral Andrew Mitchell appeared before the Vlieter, the Dutch fleet was locked in and in a very unfavorable situation.

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  British-Russian landing at Callantsoog in North Holland on August 27, 1799

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  After the surrender in the Vlieter, British crews took over the Dutch ships

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  Evacuation of the British-Russian troops from Den Helder on November 19, 1799

Mutiny of the orangists

The Hereditary Prince Wilhelm of Orange and the former Dutch captain Carel Hendrik Verhuell were on board the British flagship "Isis" . Unlike many other Dutch naval officers, Verhuell had made no secret of his rejection of the republic and his orangist sentiments and was therefore removed from active service in 1795. On behalf of the Hereditary Prince, he entered into secret negotiations with his comrades-in-law Theodorus Frederik van Capellen and Aegidius van Braam , who had each managed to sneak command of a ship of the line from the Dutch squadron. On August 30, 1799, an Orangist mutiny broke out on these two ships, which also spread to Story's flagship "Washington". Mutinous sailors unloaded the battle-ready cannons and threw them into the sea. Resistance to the British fleet was out of the question.

Mitchell urged the Dutch to surrender and submit to the Orange, but Story asked for time to get approval from the Admiralty or Republican leadership. Stone chose the captains van Capellen, van Braam and de Jong as negotiators, so that the British learned of the unwillingness of the squadron to fight. Mitchell gave Story only an hour to think it over, and Van Capellen's Orange Navy officers eventually urged Story to surrender.

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  Captain van Capellen was sentenced to death in absentia, but admiral after the orangist restoration

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  Rear Admiral Samuel Story was found guilty of infidelity and cowardice and banished to Kleve

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  Captain Verhuell went from orangist to Bonapartist and fought as a French admiral against the British

consequences

See also : History of the Dutch Navy

Overall, the majority of the Dutch fleet (10 ships of the line, 12 frigates, as well as some corvettes and smaller ships) was now in British hands. Mitchell initially raised the Orange Prinsenvlag and welcomed the Dutch as new "allies". But then the Dutch crews were replaced by British sailors to transfer the ships to England. The Dutch sailors and marines were instead assigned to the invading army. Together with British and Russian troops defeated the reinforced by French troops Batavian units Daendels' on 10 September at Krabendam and on October 2 in Alkmaar, but were on 19 September in Bergen and 6 October in Castricum or Beverwijk of Daendels and the French General Brune and forced to surrender on October 18, 1799. On November 19, 1799, the withdrawal or evacuation of the British, Russians and Orangists was completed. In the meantime the French general Napoleon Bonaparte had returned from Egypt, had seized power in Paris and taken up the fight against the coalition.

Rear Admiral Samuel Story remained in British captivity until the Peace of Amiens in 1802. Afterwards he was found guilty of infidelity and cowardice by a Dutch naval court martial and banned from the country. He died in exile in Kleve in 1811 . Van Capellen and van Braam, who remained in England, were convicted in absentia along with two other captains. Meanwhile, Verhuell changed from a pro-British orangist to a pro-French Bonapartist and from 1805 became Vice Admiral, Marshal and Minister of the Navy under King Louis of the Netherlands and Emperor Napoleon of France. Even after the Hereditary Prince returned to Holland in December 1813, Verhuell remained loyal to the French and doggedly defended Den Helder until Napoleon's abdication in April 1814. While Verhuell stayed in France afterwards, van Capellen and van Braam returned with the Hereditary Prince and became 1814 Admirals of the newly created Royal Dutch Maritime Power.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Milyutin, pp. 20-25
2. ↑ Mitchell, pp. 16f

literature

• Dmitrij A. Miljutin, Aleksandr I. Michajlovskij-Danilevskij, Christian Schmitt (translator): History of the war between Russia and France under the government of Emperor Paul I in 1799 , volume 5 (seventh and eighth part), page 23ff . Munich 1858
• Barry Stone: True Crime and Punishment - Mutinies - Shocking Real-Life Stories of Subversion at Sea , page 101ff (1799 The Vlieter Incident). Murdoch Books, Millers Point / London 2011
• W. Mitchell: The campaign in Holland, 1799 , Volume 1, pages 14-18 . Charing Cross 1861

Web links

• Royal Navy website: August 27, 1799 - British troops land at Callantsoog (Dutch)