It was back in November last year that Captain Steve concluded 2025 with a refight of the Battle of Dover, a.k.a. Goodwin Sands, 19th May 1652, link below with links to the other AAR's by Steve, using the rules General at Sea by Iain Stanford and published by the Pike and Shot Society, with Steve incorporating some, yet to be published, updates to the rules composed by Iain since their publication.
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| JJ's Wargames - The Battle of Dover |
Steve is now preparing to recommence his series of games with refights of the battles of Kentish Knock, 28th September 1652 and Dungeness fought on the 30th November 1652, and has sent me an outline of his plans for these games together with some historical background and I thought I would share the plans for the first of those battles, Kentish Knock, as a preamble to some forthcoming AARs.
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| Battle sites from the First Anglo-Dutch War in the English Channel and North Sea, showing the positions of the two upcoming featured battles of Kentish Knock and Dungeness fought in 1652. |
So over to Steve and his commentary about his planning to replay the Battle of Kentish Knock.
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| Steve's fleets go toe-to-toe in his refight of the Battle of Dover. |
The Battle of Kentish Knock
I am now getting ready for my next Anglo-Dutch game, this time featuring one of my favourite actions the Battle of the Kentish Knock.
My interest is due to two factors:
1. This is the first time that the Sovereign of the Seas (just Sovereign under the Commonwealth) goes into battle and plays a decisive part in the English victory.
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| Known by the Dutch as the 'golden devil', on account of her all black and gold appearance, 'Sovereign of the Seas' was the most magnificent ship of her era. Designed in 1634 by Phineas Pett she was the first ship to have three full gun decks, carrying 102 guns on the orders of King Charles I instead of the 90 originally planned. No expense was spared in her construction. All her guns were made from bronze instead of cast iron which meant they were much lighter but four times more expensive. Most impressive was her gilded and carved decoration costing over £6600, equivalent to the cost of the hull for a two decked ship. Her first engagement was the Battle of Kentish Knock during the First Dutch War on 28 September 1652 when it is alleged she destroyed a Dutch ship with a single broadside. |
2. I feel that Witte de With has been given a hard time by historians. Yes, he had a massive chip on his shoulder all his life and was a nightmare as a colleague and commander. However, he was an excellent tactician, second only to Tromp, and he came so close to a stunning victory over Blake with an inferior fleet.
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| Not an entirely satisfactory map of the battle. This is the closest I have found, but even this has a mistake – de Ruyter should be leading with de With in the centre. |
His decision to tack his entire fleet when in contact with the enemy is unique to my knowledge and allowed him to come within an inch of destroying the English rear squadron. He was foiled by the English managing to get Sovereign and James off the Kentish Knock shoal and launch a devastating flank attack and the disaffection of part of his fleet because the Zealanders did not want to be commanded by an Admiral from Holland and definitely not de With and the 'Orangists', disliked by all Republicans. They were definitely not a “band of brothers”.
The accounts of the action as described on Wikipedia and the BCW Project Page.
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| https://bcw-project.org.uk/military/first-anglo-dutch-war/kentish-knock |
Blake is an exceptional commander, but de Ruyter is not because he is only commanding the van squadron.
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| The English Fleet - William Penn's Squadron. Note on the Ship Stats: Combat Value (CV). Dependent on the number and rate of ships included in the stand. Shooting Factor (SF). This is found by dividing the Weight of Broadside (lbs) by 50. Fractions of 0.5 and over are rounded up and below 0.5 being rounded down. Boarding Factor (BF).This is found by dividing the number of Crew (men) by 100. Fractions of 0.5 and over are rounded up and below 0.5 being rounded down. Defence Factor (DF). This is found by dividing the Ships Tonnage by 200. Fractions of 0.5 and over are rounded up and below 0.5 being rounded down. |
In his impatience to get into action, Blake has rushed out of the Downs in no order and had to wait for Penn and the rest of his squadron to catch up. The New Englander, Nehemiah Bourne, who came to Blake’s rescue at Dover, is far behind the rest of his fleet and will start to enter on the third turn. Blake’s mistake in not concentrating his fleet gave de With the chance to destroy Bourne and he seized it.
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Iain and I have agreed to amend the rules on tacking – a stand will complete its tack, but should it fail the test, it will become disorganised. This follows a game we played about twelve years ago when my poor dice throwing resulted in the whole Dutch fleet heading backwards! We agreed that this was unrealistic and the chance of becoming disorganised was a sufficient deterrent to anyone wishing to copy de With’s manoeuvre.
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Whilst morale in the Dutch fleet was poor, I have made them average because they were still highly competent to complete complex seamanship etc – it was that they were not particularly enthusiastic, especially those who – unlike de With - had been at Dover and Plymouth and had experienced English firepower.
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In the accounts, although the Dutch had been divided into four squadrons before the battle, after the gale there only seems to have been only three and no mention of the Zealanders. They may have hung back and not been observed by the English or were spread amongst the other squadrons. I have chosen to keep them as a separate allied squadron with poor morale, and this should mean that they will stay to the leeward of the fleet, avoiding action, as happened in the real battle.
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As the shoal is directly in front of Penn’s squadron, it is highly likely that the first and second-rates will go aground. The key to the game will be whether they can be refloated in time to launch the flank attack. Also, whilst they are stuck on the shoal, they are a tempting target for a fireship attack.
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The action started in the late afternoon and is limited to 12 turns before nightfall.
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| Steve's game plan. Note the shoal squares directly ahead of Penn's squadron, which has the potential to cause the English fleet some serious issues. |
If you were following Steve's games from last year you will know he has a marvellous collection of Langton fully rigged and detailed Anglo-Dutch 1:1200 models and I am very much looking forward to presenting this and the Dungeness games in future posts together with a similar run through of Steve's plans to refight Dungeness.
As always, more anon.
JJ
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