The Fleets at the Battle of Beachy Head, 1690: Part 2

Posted in Naval history, Uncategorized, tagged Beachy Head, Beveziers on 07/04/2014 |

Guest blogger Frank Fox presents the second half of his important new assessment of the fleets that

fought in the Battle of Beachy Head. Next week, Ill be reporting on the Oxford Naval Conference in

honour of John Hattendorf, which Im attending.

***

The Dutch squadron, commanded by Cornelis Evertsen, Lieutenant-Admiral of Holland and

Westfriesland, formed the van of the allied fleet. The twenty-two ships, commanders, and their

armament are given in Evertsens letters written after the battle and published in Hollandsche

Mercurius, pp. 202-208. The manning figures are intended complements and not the actual numbers

aboard. Most are from a list in J C M Warnsinck, De Vloot van den Koning-Stadhouder 1689-

1690 (1934), p. 82; and from the appendices in J C De Jonge,Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche

Zeewezen, v. 3 (1869), pp. 730-739. The letters in the ADM column indicate the admiralties to which

the ships belonged; A is Amsterdam, M is the Maas (Rotterdam), N is the Noorderkwartier (North

Quarter), and Z is Zeeland. The Dutch squadron was in three divisions, with the flagships and

division commanders shown below in bold type. The ships of the van division flew a pendant at the

fore, those of the centre division a pendant the main, and those of the rear division a pendant at the

mizzen. Dutch flag-officers all flew the national tricolour as command flags. These were at the main

for lieutenant-admirals, at the fore for vice-admirals, and at the mizzen for schout-b-nachts (rear-

admirals). In previous Dutch sea-battles, the ships had worn various combinations of several flags as

ensigns and jacks to signify their admiralty affiliations, but whether this applied in 1690 is not clear.

The sources for the Dutch squadron note that there were four fireships, but do not identify them other

than giving the names of three of the commanders. Dutch researcher Carl Stapel found the fourth

commander and two of the fireship names (matched to commanders) in admiralty reports from April

1690, and a third fireship and commander (Van Brakels Suikermolen) turned up in the vast data

compiled by James Bender for his soon-to-be-published Dutch Warships in the Age of Sail 1600-1714,

which he graciously made available. The remaining fireship, expended in action

under Commandeur Thameszoon of Amsterdam, I have tentatively identified as the Kroonvogel; she

was the only Amsterdam fireship in 1690 aside from the Suikermolen which does not appear in later

Dutch fleet lists. Perhaps uniquely for a Dutch fleet in battle in the seventeenth century, there were

no light frigates present, as noted in one of Evertsens letters appearing in Hollandsche Mercurius,

1690, p. 206.

The published lists of the Dutch squadrons do not give the forenames of the commanders. I have

filled in most of these from Mr Benders data; by chance, two that he could not supply appear in

English warrants for travel to the Netherlands for officers of ships that were lost on the English coast

after the battle Jan van der Poel and Cornelis Calis (NA, ADM 44/339, pp. 307 and 314). Only two

of the flag-captains (noted below) have so far been identified.

ADM SHIP GUNS MEN COMMANDER

Van Division

A Wapen van Utrecht 64 315 Pieter Claassen Decker

N Alkmaar 50 200 Jan Kalff

Z Tholen 60 330 Cornelis Calis

N Westfriesland 82 450 Vice-Adm. Gerard Callenburgh

A Prinses Maria 92 500 S.b.N. Gilles Schey

A Castricum 52 240 Ferdinand Joan Kuyper

A Agatha 50 210 Willem van der Zaan

Centre Division

A Stad en Lande 52 210 Abraham Taalman

N Maagd van Enkhuizen 72 370 Jan van der Poel

A Noord Holland 44 190 Rudolf Swaan

M Maagd van Dordrecht 60 300 Anthon Pieterson

A Hollandia 70 360 Lt-Adm. Cornelis Evertsen /

Capt. Hendrik van Toll

M Veluwe 60 375 S.b.N. Jan van Brakel /

Capt. Matthias De la Cave

M Provincie van Utrecht 50 210 Jan van Convent

M Maas 64 340 Jan Snellen

Rear Division

A Friesland 68 350 Philips van der Goes

A Elswout 50 210 Adriaan Noorthe

A Reigersbergen 74 360 Abraham Ferdinand van Zll

Z Gekroonde Burg 62 350 Vice-Adm. Karel van de Putte

N Noord Holland 72 320 S.b.N. Jan Dick

Z Veere 60 325 Cornelis Jansz. Mosselman

Z Kortgene 50 240 Andries de Boer

Fireships (not in line)

A Suikermolen 4 25 Abraham van Brakel

A Kroonvogel? 6 22 Thameszoon

N Maagd van Enkhuizen 6 22 Musevanger

Z Burg Etna 4 25 Cornelis Antheuniszoon

The aftermath of the battle: Richard Endsors painting of the burning of the third rate Anne at Pett level,

where her remains can still be seen (see previous posts on this blog; thanks to Richard for giving permission

for the use of his work)

The English fleet was under Admiral Arthur Herbert, Earl of Torrington (1648-1716), who was the

overall allied commander. The usual source for the English order of battle is Laird Clowes, The Royal

Navy . . . , v. 2, p. 335. But this is incomplete in omitting light frigates and the stations of the

fireships. A lesser known alternative that does give the approximate stations of the fireships

isMemoirs Relating to the Lord Torrington, ed. J K Laughton, (Camden Society, 1889), p. 50. The

Torrington referred to in this work is not Arthur Herbert, but George Byng, Viscount Torrington from

1721 and captain of the third-rate Hopein 1690. These sources disagree slightly in that Clowes states

that the fourth-rate Constant Warwick was not in the line, while Byng assigns her a station (as shown

below).

The light frigates and small warships omitted by the published sources are identified in the Admiraltys

monthly fleet distribution lists (NA, ADM 8/2). The presence of several not mentioned in accounts of

the battle were verified from their logs, preserved in NA, ADM 52/87 (Portsmouth), ADM 51/384

(Garland), ADM 52/69 (Milford), ADM 51/3963 (Salamander), and ADM 51/214 (Concord). I have

taken the minutely detailed data in ADM 8/2 as the most reliable authority for captains, guns, and

complements of all ships.

The English had an overall strength of thirty-five men-of-war of the fourth rate or larger, seven light

frigates and small warships, sixteen fireships, and one hospital ship. In addition, the fleet was

accompanied by a swarm of small ketches and smacks which had been hired as tenders and utility

craft for the men-of-war. They are not listed here because those actually present seem unrecorded.

But these vessels, their masters, and the ships to which they were assigned can be found in NA, ADM

1/3560, fo. 805; and ADM 49/29, fos 39v-52r and 61v-62r.

The English formed the centre and rear squadrons of the allied fleet, with the flagships indicated below

in bold type. The centre, designated the Red Squadron, was in three divisions; while the rear,

designated the Blue Squadron, was undivided (two expected flag-officers were missing; Sir Clowdesley

Shovell had not returned from escorting King William III to Ireland, and Henry Killigrews squadron

was delayed in coming home from the Mediterranean). In the Red Squadron, Torrington flew a Union

flag at the main, his vice-admiral in the van division a red flag at the fore, and the rear-admiral a red

flag at the mizzen. The ships of this squadron displayed a red pendant at the main and wore the red

ensign. In the Blue Squadron, the only flag-officer, Rear- Admiral Delavall, flew a blue flag at the

mizzen. All of his ships had a blue pendant at the main and wore the blue ensign. As usual, all the

English ships wore a small Union flag as the jack.

Several vessels just missed inclusion in this list. The fourth-rates Assurance,Phoenix, and Mary

Galley, along with the fifth-rate Play Prize (plus an unidentified Dutch man-of-war) came to the fleet

the day after the battle; the sixth-rateJulian Prize was two days late (NA, ADM

52/110, Suffolk masters log; NA, ADM 52/66, Mary Galley masters log; and NA, ADM 51/494, Julian

Prize captains log).

RATE SHIP GUNS MEN COMMANDER

Red Squadron (centre) three divisions

Van Division

3 Plymouth 60 340 Richard Carter

4 Deptford 50 280 William Kerr

3 Elizabeth 70 460 David Mitchell

2 Sandwich 90 660 Vice-Adm. Sir John

Ashby /Capt.William Bridges

fs Wolf 8 45 Thomas Urry

fs Vulture 8 45 James Moody

3 Expedition 70 460 John Clements

3 Warspite 70 420 Stafford Fairborne

4 Woolwich 54 280 James Gother

3 Lion 60 340 John Topley

Centre Division

4 Constant Warwick 42 180 John Beverly

3 Rupert 66 400 George Pomeroy

2 Albemarle 90 660 Sir Francis Wheeler

3 Grafton 70 460 Henry, Duke of Grafton

fs Roebuck 8 45 Isaac Townsend

1 Royal Sovereign 100 815 Adm. Earl of Torrington/Capt. John

Neville

fs Dolphin 8 45 William Vickers

fs Owners Love 10 40 Thomas Heath

2 Windsor Castle 90 660 George Churchill

fs Speedwell 8 45 John Mason

3 Lenox 70 460 John Granville

3 Stirling Castle 70 460 Anthony Hastings

Rear Division

3 York 60 340 Thomas Hopson

3 Suffolk 70 460 Wolfran Cornwall

3 Hampton Court 70 460 John Layton

2 Duchess 90 660 Rear-Adm. George Rooke /Capt.

Thomas Gillam

fs Hound 8 45 Thomas Fowlis

fs Spy 8 45 Frederick Weighman

3 Hope 70 460 George Byng

3 Restoration 70 460 William Botham

Blue Squadron (rear) undivided

3 Anne 70 460 John Tyrrell

fs Fox 8 45 William Stone

fs Thomas & Elizabeth 10 40 Thomas Marshall

4 Bonaventure 48 230 John Hubbard

3 Edgar 72 445 John Jennifer

3 Exeter 70 460 George Meese

3 Breda 70 460 Matthew Tennant

1 St. Andrew 96 730 Robert Dorrell

fs Charles 6 25 Anthony Roope

1 Coronation 90 660 Rear-Adm. Sir Ralph Delavall /

Capt. John Munden

fs Griffin 8 45 Peregrine Clifford Chamberlain

fs Hawk 8 45 William Harman

2 Royal Katherine 84 540 Matthew Aylmer

fs Cygnet 10 40 Robert Wilmot

3 Cambridge 70 420 Simon Foulks

3 Berwick 70 460 Henry Martin

4 Swallow 48 230 Benjamin Walters

3 Defiance 64 400 John Graydon

fs Hunter 8 45 Thomas Kercher

fs Cadiz Merchant 12 45 David Greenhill

3 Captain 70 460 Daniel Jones

Light Frigates not in line, stations unknown

5 Portsmouth 32 135 Francis Wyvell

5 Milford 32 135 Charles Hawkins

5 Garland 30 130 Thomas Robinson

6 Sally Rose 22 80 Thomas Gardner

6 Saudadoes 16 75 Roger Newton

6 Fubbs yacht 12 40 John Guy

6 Salamander bomb 10 35 William Martin

Hospital Ship

5 Concord Ralph Crow

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank James Bender and Carl Stapel for helping to fill out details of the Dutch squadron, and

Richard Endsor for photographing numerous documents in the National Archives and for his painting

that accompanies the blog. Dr Peter Le Fevre kindly supplied other useful documents.

The Fleets at the Battle of Beachy Head, 1690: Part 1

31/03/2014 by gentlemenandtarpaulins

Im delighted to welcome Frank Fox as my guest blogger, both this week and next!

Franks name will be well known to many students and readers of naval history. A former Supply

Officer in the US Navy, he is the author of two of the most important books about late 17th century

naval history, Great Ships: The Battlefleet of King Charles II (1980) and The Four Days Battle of

1666 (2009, originally published as A Distant Storm in 1996). The latter describes the subject of the

forthcoming Quinton novel, The Battle of All The Ages, and was one of my principal research sources

for it. Frank is currently working on aspects of the Battle of Beachy Head, one of the most

controversial engagements of the age of sail, and this week, he presents important new evidence

about the French fleet at the battle. The revised listings of the Anglo-Dutch fleet will follow next week.

So over to Frank!

***

Many thanks to J D Davies for making his site available. The Battle of Beachy Head, fought on 30

June 1690 by the English calendar, was a victory achieved by a great French fleet over a rather

smaller combined English and Dutch fleet. While studying this engagement for its possible

archaeological relevance for a shipwreck site on the British coast (for which more will soon be

forthcoming here), I found that the published fleet lists for the battle are not fully satisfactory.

Whether from French, Dutch, or British sources, all are incomplete and some contain demonstrable

mistakes. The lists offered here present more detailed information, though unknowns still remain.

Contemporary illustration of the Battle of Beachy Head, 30 June 1690 (known to the French as Beveziers)

The French fleet, commanded by Vice-Admiral Anne Hilarion de Cotentin, Comte de Tourville, has

been best known from a list in Lon Gurin, Histoire Maritime de France (1851), v. 3, pp. 449-453.

This was accepted by the most frequently cited British authority, William Laird Clowes, The Royal

Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to the Present (1898), v. 2, p. 335. Regrettably, Gurin and

Clowes omit two ships, reverse the stations of two others as compared with other lists, give

improbable numbers of guns for two vessels, and do not indicate the stations of fireships and light

frigates. A less known list in Eugne Sue, Histoire de la Marine Franaise (1856), v. 4, pp. 557-558,

shows the complete order of battle including stations of the fireships and light frigates. Sue does not

give men and guns, but these appear in other sources. First, there is a list in the Dutch

newspaper Hollandsche Mercurius from July 1690, pp. 195-197. It was drawn up a little before the

final order of battle was adopted, and thus gives a different order of fighting and includes several

vessels which were eventually left behind with a squadron of galleys. It does, however, offer plausible

armament figures. Second, a panoramic drawing of the battle in the French archives is reproduced in

Charles De La Roncire, Histoire de la Marine Franaise (1900), v. 6, following p. 72. It marks each

ship with a number corresponding to a keyed handwritten fleet list including men and guns. Unlike

other sources, this one gives what appear in many cases to be actual numbers of men aboard instead

of merely rounded complements. For better or worse, they are accordingly used in the list below. A

few are hard to read due to unlucky ink blots, hence the occasional question mark. Gurin allots all

fireships 30 men, which uniformity seems unlikely, but there is no other source.

Many authorities have remarked on the baffling inconsistencies in numbers of guns listed for the

French ships in the various sources for this battle. As these appear unresolvable, I have given the

highest and lowest numbers of guns for each vessel as they appear in Hollandsche Mercurius, Gurin,

and the drawing in La Roncire. Wildly inaccurate figures for two ships reported by Gurin (80 guns

for the third-rate Le Marquis and only 58 for the first-rate La Couronne) have been disregarded, as

have two clear mistakes in Hollandsche Mercurius (only 46 guns for the second-rate Le Pompeux and

80 guns for the third-rate Le Hardy). The results agree well with the armament ranges in Pierre Le

Conte, Lists of Men-of-War 1650-1700, Part II, French Ships, 1648-1700 (Society for Nautical

Research Occasional Publication no. 5, 1935). The only vessel for which the variation still seemed

excessive is Chteau-Renaults flagship Le Dauphin-Royal, for which the armament in the three

sources is given as 90, 100, and 110 guns. The largest figure (from Gurin) is questionable in that

Tourville insisted on mounting rather fewer than the specified 110 guns in his own Le Soleil-Royal,

which was considerably larger and vastly more strongly manned than Chteau-Renaults ship. And, a

report printed in Gurin, v. 3, pp. 313-316, written from the fleet five days after the battle by

Cartigny, Commissionaire and Inspecteur Gnral de la Marine, gives the armament of Le Dauphin-

Royal as 100 guns. For the present, it must be left for French researchers to settle this matter.

The line included seventy ships. Excluded from the line were five light frigates and eighteen fireships.

The fleet was organized into three squadrons of three divisions each, but the available sources do not

show the boundaries between divisions. The French flags are recorded in an English source: a

meticulous listing in the log of Captain Sir Francis Wheeler of the English ship Albemarle(The National

Archives of Great Britain [NA], ADM 51/55). Each squadron commander, in the centre division, flew a

rectangular flag at the fore (including Tourville). The second-in-command of each squadron (the

functional vice-admiral regardless of titular rank) flew a rectangular flag at the mizzen, and the third-

in-command (the functional contre-admiral or rear-admiral) flew a swallow-tailed cornette at the

mizzen. The command flags in the Avant-garde (Van Squadron) were blue, those in the Corps de

Bataille (Centre Squadron) were white, and those in the Arrire-garde (Rear Squadron) were bicolour

white over blue. In addition to the nine division commanders, the French placed a junior flag officer

(chef descadre abbreviated CdE below) at the very head and tail of the line. These flew special

pendants at the mizzen peak (the tip of the diagonal mizzen yard), the only ships in the fleet with

pendants (though Tourvilles seconds stationed immediately before and abaft him were also chefs

descadre). In all ships, jacks and ensigns were white. The flag arrangements were rather different

from those specified by the current Ordonnance, which apparently had not anticipated fleets of such

great size.

In the list below, the division commanders and their flagships are in bold type. In the RATE column,

the five fourth-rate light frigates not in the line are identified as 4F. Their names are indented

showing their approximate stations on the unengaged side of the fleet. Fireships are designated by

fs in the RATE column and their names are double-indented. All the flag-officers including the

junior chefs descadre each evidently had at least one fireship under his control. The eight ships

indicated as Rptiteurs were designated signal repeaters. There is some controversy about this,

since the Chevalier de Forbin-Gardane claimed later in his Memoirs of the Count de Forbin (London,

1731), p. 277, to have been among the rptiteurs, but Sues list allots this honour to Forbins next-

ahead, the Chevalier de la Rongre.

The rates for ships in the French navy of the 1690s did not correspond to English rates. The three-

decked French first-rates included all of what the English would have counted as first- and second-

rates. French second-rates roughly equated to large English third-rates, and French third-rates were

about the same size and force as the small English third-rates and large fourth-rates.

Some details in the list below still remain wanting. I was unable to find the forenames of most of the

captains, and have accordingly omitted them all. I was able to identify only three flag-captains, as

shown below. Finally, French proper names in the seventeenth century were often rendered in a

variety of phonetic spellings. To those who disapprove of the versions adopted here, I cheerfully

apologize.

RATE SHIP GUNS MEN COMMANDER

Avant-garde (Van Squadron)

2 Le Fier 68-72 515 CdE De Relingues

fs LHameon 6 30 Deslauriers

3 Le Fort 52-60 365 De Lartelloire

4 Le Maure 52-54 282 Chev. La Galissonnire

2 Lclantant 64-68 441 De Septesmes

1 Le Conqurant 70-74 588 Lt-Gn. Marq. de Villette-

Mursay / Capt. de La Roche-Allard

fs Le Fanfaron 10 30 La Serre

2 Le Courtisan 62-66 400 De Pointis

4 LIndien 44-50 250 De Roussel

4F Le Solide 42-48 250 De Ferville

4 Le Trident 46-52 282 De Riberet

3 Le Hardy (Rptiteur) 56-58 350 Comte des Gouttes

3 Le Saint-Louis 56-58 362 La Roque-Percin

3 LExcellent 56-60 351 Chev. de Montbron

2 Le Pompeux 72-74 460 DAligre

fs La Branche dOlivier 6 30 Moreau

1 Le Dauphin-Royal 90-110 705 Lt-Gn. Chteau-Renault/

Capt. Delcampe

fs LImpudent 10 30 Origne Marchand

fs Le Dguis 4 30 De Lalande

3 LArdent 62-66 364 DInfreville

3 Le Bon 52-56 315? Chev. de Digoine du Palais

3 Le Prcieux 54 330 De Prinet

3 LAquilon (Rptiteur) 52-54 350? De Beaugeais

4F LAlcion 40-44 150 Jean-Bart

3 Le Fendant 52-58 340? La Vigerie

3 Le Courageux 60 365 De Svigny

1 La Couronne 72-78 517 CdE Marquis de Langeron

fs Le Dur 10 30 De Longchamps

3 Le Ferme 54-60 358 De Vandricourt

3 Le Tmraire 52-58 343 De Rivault-Huet

4F Lole 46-50 250 Du Tast

Corps de Bataille (Centre Squadron)

3 Le Brusque (Rptiteur) 50-56 314 De Ricours

3 LArrogant 54-60 362 Chev. des Adrets

4 LArc-en-Ciel 44-46 272 Chev. de Sainte-Maure

2 LHenri 62-66 390 DAmblimont

1 Le Souverain 80-84 588 CdE De Nesmond / Capt.

dAire

fs Le Prilleux 10 30 Monnier

3 Le Brillant 58-66 480 De Beaujeu

4 Le Neptune 46 240 De Forbin

3 Le Sans-Pareil (Rptiteur)58-60 385 Chev. de La Rongre

3 Le Fidle 46-56 242 Chev. de Forbin-Gardane

3 Le Diamant 54-56 355 De Serquigney

2 Le Srieux 56-64 324 Chev. de Bellefontaine

2 Le Tonnant 70-72 515 CdE Marquis de La Porte

fs LEspion 10 30 Drognon-Terras

1 Le Soleil-Royal 98-104 904 Vice-Adm. Comte de

Tourville

fs LInsens 10 30 Cadeneau

4F Le Faucon 44 De Montbault

1 Le Saint-Philippe 80 525 CdE Chev. de Cotlogon

fs La Jolie 10 30 Naudy

3 Le Marquis 58-60 343 Chev. de Chteau-Morand

3 Le Furieux 58-60 365 Desnots

3 La Fortun (Rptiteur) 58-60 368 Pallas

3 LApollon 56-58 365 Bidault

3 Le Saint-Michel 54-58 348 De Villars

3 LEntreprenant 56-60 365 De Sbeville

1 Le Magnifique 76-80 590 Lt-Gn. Marquis

dAmfreville

fs La Bouffonne 10 30 Descourtis

fs Le Fcheux 10 30 Verguin

2 Le Content 56-60 390 Comte de Saint-Pierre

3 Le Vermandois 58-60 262 Du Challard

4 Le Cheval-Marin 40-46 252 Chev. dAmfreville

3 Le Fougueux (Rptiteur) 58 368 De Saint-Marc

Arrire-garde (Rear Squadron)

4 Le Comte 40-44 250 Marq. La Roche-Courbon-

Blnac

3 Le Vigilant 52-56 315 Chev. de Chalais

2 Le Parfait 60-62 350 Machault

2 Le Triomphant 70-72 515 CdE Chev. de Flacourt

fs LImpertinent 6 30 Fremicourt

2 Le Bourbon 58-62 350 DHervault

3 Le Duc 48-52 305 Pallire

3 Le Vaillant 48-54 350 Feuquires

3 Le Capable (Rptiteur) 50-54 250 La Boissire

3 Le Brave 50-58 385 De Champigny

3 Le Franois 44-46 262 Chev. dHailly

3 LAgrable 58-60 360 Le Motte

2 Le Florissant 72-80 500 De Cogolin

fs La Diligente 6-10 30 Rolland

1 Le Grand 80-86 660 Vice-Adm. Comte dEstres

fs Le Bout-de-Feu 6 30 Jean-tienne

2 Le Belliqueux 72-74 515 Des Francs

fs Le Royal-Jacques 6-10 30 Perron

4F Le Lger 44 200 Du Rouvroy

3 Le Prince 56-58 365 Baron des Adrets

3 Le Prudent 52-58 234 Des Herbiers

3 Le Modr (Rptiteur) 50 315 Des Augiers

3 Le Fleuron 54-58 339 De Chabert

2 LAimable 66-70 450 Du Magnon

1 LIntrpide 80-84 600 Lt-Gn. Gabaret

fs La Maligny 6-10 30 De Reussy

2 Le Glorieux 60-62 392 Belle-Isle rard

2 LIllustre 66-70 472 Chev. de Rosmadec

2 Le Terrible 72-74 515 CdE Panneti

fs LExtravagant 10 30 Longchamps-Montendre