The Battle of Portland (a.k.a. The Three Days' Battle), 18th - 20th February 1653 - General at Sea.

Blake and Tromp - William Lionel Wyllie.

This post follows on from Capt. Steve's narrative of the events leading up to the Battle of Portland in 1653 and his plans to recreate this 'clash of titans' as three of the greatest admirals of the Anglo-Dutch Wars and indeed naval history, Tromp, de Ruyter and Blake at the head of 75 to 80 ships on each side, met off Portland in the English Channel on the 18th of February 1653, to contest mastery of this most vital of waterways to both nations mercantile and commercial interests, see the link below for the post covering the preparation for this game.

JJ's Wargames: The Battle of Portland (a.k.a. The Three Days' Battle), 18th - 20th February 1653, Game Plan and Preparation - General at Sea

For the refight of this very large battle Steve was using General at Sea ruleset by Ian Stanford, which enables the large fleets that characterised the Anglo-Dutch Wars to be modelled on the table by having models represent three to four actual warships to keep the fleets manageable on the table.

The fleet summaries above and below illustrate the arrangements of the models into their various divisions and squadrons with twenty models in the English fleet and nineteen in the Dutch with their combat statistics shown as CV (combat value), SF (shooting factor), BF (boarding factor), and DF (defence factor), with the Fleet total at the top showing two evenly matched opponents, slightly favouring the English with a CV of 304 versus 250 for the Dutch, that reflects the larger more powerful English ships of this period.

For a more detailed order of battle showing which actual ships are represented by the models, you can see them illustrated in the planning post linked above.

The scenario setup plan below captures the situation with the Dutch having the wind as they close on a dispersed English fleet trying to close up having just found their quarry but having had to recall their squadrons from the wide search arrangements they had set up to make sure the Dutch would not slip past them in this the wider part of the Channel. 

Game Setup and Start Positions

So with the game plan arranged Steve made a slight alteration to the setup to better align things to the table that sees the compass adjusted to allow the Dutch to enter the table from the long edge now repositioned as the north west.

The table is arranged for battle and as all wargamers know, the plan changes on first contact with the enemy, so to allow the large fleets to make best use of Steve's table the Dutch can be seen entering from the right table edge now identified as north west rather than the corner as illustrated in the plan.

Blake is hove to in the centre, separated from the rest of the English fleet, with four Dutch squadrons now bearing down on him. Monck is off table and will not appear on table until Turn 7.

Turn 2

As the Dutch bear down on Blake, the English commander opens fire at long range, to no effect, as Penn and Lawson manoeuvre their respective forces to try and join the battle from upwind.

The Dutch bear down on Blake, as the English commander opens fire at long range.

Turn 3

Tromp closes with Blake and receives a bow rake from the powerful English ships that cause a Level 2 disruption, requiring the Dutch commander to take a risk with the Command Stand check.

Tromp closes with Blake and receives a bow rake.

Disaster for the Dutch fleet as Tromp rolls a 12 on his Command Stand check that sees Tromp killed and leaving his stand impaired for three turns until another officer can take charge.

The likely scene aboard Tromp's quarterdeck as he takes a battering from Blake, leaving the Dutch commander dead.

His squadron fails its reaction test and all its stands are disrupted, however Evertsen and Floriszoon manage to pass their respective tests.

Disaster for the Dutch in Turn 3 as Blake's squadron delivers a punishing bow rake on Tromp's command stand that leaves the Dutch commander dead and his squadron disrupted.

In the process of all this drama Admiral William Penn has managed to tack his way into a position that will allow him to attack de Ruyter.

Turn 4

The misery continues for Tromp's stand as it receives further damage and is dispersed, but manages to pass its Squadron test and stays on the table.

Tromp's stand as it receives further damage and is dispersed.

Meanwhile Penn beats upwind towards de Ruyter who turns to meet the threat.

Penn beats upwind towards de Ruyter.

Turn 5

Tromp's scattered stand attempts to disengage, whilst Evertsen passes the rear of Blake and begins to engage Howett and is disrupted for his trouble.

In the background Evertsen's squadron has passed the rear of Blake and Tromp in the centre, whilst on the extreme right Howett's squadron have engaged Evertesen

Three of de Ruyter's squadron concentrate their fire at long range on the foremost stand of Penn's squadron, causing it to be disrupted.

de Ruyter's squadron concentrate their fire at long range on the foremost stand of Penn's squadron.

Turn 6

The battle intensifies as the following stand in Tromp's squadron receives a battering from Blake and is scattered, whilst Floriszoon bow rakes Lawson but causes no damage, and Evertesen is disrupted by Howett's squadron.

Blake continues to batter Tromp's squadron, centre-rear. Evertsen is disrupted by Howett, top-right, and  Floriszoon bow rakes Lawson to no effect, bottom-right.

Penn exchanges fire with de Ruyter at long range, to no effect, whilst the rest of his squadron charges into the attack.

English gunners pouring on the hurt!

The stage is now set for the arrival of General at Sea Monck, next turn.

Penn exchanges fire with de Ruyter at long range, to no effect.

Turn 7

Tromp's scattered squadron turns away and starts to limp back in the direction of the Dutch convoy, whilst Blake sustains a level 1 damage due to the accumulation of disruptions it has received in the fight with Tromp's squadron.

Tromp's stand can be seen limping away from the fight with Blake, top, centre-left, whilst the lead stands of Penn and Lawson have passed through their Dutch opponents extreme left and right, whilst in the background, top right Evertsen has turned to starboard in pursuit of Howett, whilst the first two stands of Monck's squadron can be seen approaching, top-right.

Some of Penn and Lawson's stands break through their Dutch opponents, stern raking as they pass and causing level 1 damage and disruptions. 

Battle is well and truly joined as Tromp's lead stand limps away with a dead admiral aboard, whilst battle rages around Blake's squadron in the background.

Evertesen swings around in pursuit of Howett, only to spot the leading stands of Monck arriving from the south.

Turn 8

Tromp's squadron continues to break off, whilst some of Penn's squadron are moving in to take prizes. 

The Dutch are beat and both Floriszoon and Evertsen take the opportunity to escape off table. 

The Dutch are starting to break off leaving damaged and scattered stands in their wake as the English pursue in an attempt to take prizes.

However de Ruyter gamely takes the battle to Penn's English Blue Squadron as he circles around them and damages their rearmost stand in a parting salute.

The Dutch are beat but de Ruyter gamely takes the battle to Penn's English Blue Squadron as he circles around them and damages their rearmost stand in a parting salute.

So Blake comes out on top again and I attach Steve's comments on the fight, which might take some interpreting from the pictures so I have included Steve's sketch of the game action;

'. . . these battles do turn into pell-mell actions, which is why contemporary accounts are so hard to follow what happened. This one is slightly clearer as the squadrons were quite far apart, but I have attached a sketch of what happened during this game to help . . .'

Steve's sketch of the game action

The real battle (and the next two) showed that the traditional Dutch tactics of “board and burn” – which had worked so well against the Spanish and Portuguese – simply could not cope with English firepower, especially when employed in line.

This game had the same historic outcome, except that the Dutch had the misfortune to lose Tromp at the beginning of the action, causing confusion and dismay amongst his fleet. Tromp’s intention had been to come to close range of Blake and then launch a fireship. Even though Blake was undamaged, his stand was heaved to and vulnerable. This plan was thwarted when Blake fired first, inflicting level 2 damage, disruption and in the process killing Tromp. 

Tromp might have lessened the effect of Blake’s broadside by turning to starboard at the end of the move, thus avoiding a bow rake, however with Blake’s SF of 33 against Tromp’s DF of 14, Tromp was always going to come off much worse in close action; and Tromp’s stand is the most powerful in the Dutch fleet.

Blake's line arranged, hove to awaiting Tromp, with weaker stands placed behind the heavier warships to prevent the Dutch breaking through.

If Tromp had altered course to pass ahead of Blake and rake him, all Blake had to do was set sail and move off to block him. Even with lucky dice throws, Tromp could not break through Blake because of the weak stand positioned behind him and his second.

Due to the inferiority of the Dutch ships compared to their heavier English opponents in the First Anglo Dutch War, it is very difficult for the Dutch to win. At their victory at Livorno, they had a more than 2-1 advantage in numbers, and half the defeated English squadron were hired merchants. 

Capt. Steve's refight of the Battle of Livorno, his first battle report using General at Sea, back in June last year.
JJ's Wargames: The Battle of Livorno (Leghorn), 4th March 1653, using General at Sea and the Fireships in action.

For the Dutch to have a fighting chance, we will have to move to the Second Anglo Dutch War, when their emergency shipbuilding programme resulted in larger, more powerful warships more capable of fighting toe-to toe with the English.

I have attached my plan of Day 2 of the battle. The Dutch formed a crescent, shielding their convoy – over 150 vessels – from the pursuing English. Rather like the Armada in 1588, except that the Dutch horns pointed inwards, whereas the Spanish pointed outwards. Ships in this period had much heavier and more numerous stern chasers than in the Napoleonic wars, and when aimed by expert gunners could hold off attackers. 

The high transom of the Vasa, which I photographed last October during a visit to Stockholm, illustrates Steve's point about the numerous ports for stern chasers on ships of this period, compared to the design of later 18th and 19th century warships, a factor that underpins the Dutch tactics for Day 2 of The Battle of Portland.

The English tried to send frigates around the flanks to pick off merchantmen. Dutch discipline held throughout most of the day until they began to run out of powder and shot and this caused some the escorts to run for home. At this point some of the convoy decided to break away and take their chances. It was a major triumph for Tromp to get the convoy safely back to Holland by a feat of seamanship, sailing past Cape Cris Nez at night.

I hope, like me, you enjoyed this further exploration of the First Anglo-Dutch Wars and the Battle of Portland, and thank you to Captain Steve for yet another engaging after action report and battle plan.

More to come on JJ's with another theme to explore as I have some 28mm Seven Years War French Infantry to showcase that I have painted for my pal, Steve M, in readiness for a Quebec Campaign game themed around the Battle of Sainte-Foy fought in April 1760 and the subject of a planned game later this year; in addition I intend to showcase the 15th Virginia Continental Regiment, and I have an overall update and review of my 'The World Turned Upside Down' AWI project showing all the units produced too date and my next steps.

As always, more anon.

JJ

The Battle of Portland (a.k.a. The Three Days' Battle), 18th - 20th February 1653, Game Plan and Preparation - General at Sea

 

In the previous post in this series by Captain Steve, he recounted the situation that led up to the Battle of Dungeness in November 1652, and a refight of the battle using the rules General at Sea by Ian Stanford, link below.

JJ's Wargames: The Battle of Dungeness, 30th November 1652 - General at Sea.

In this post Steve picks up the narrative as the Tromp/Blake duel carried on into 1653 with another major clash around a Dutch convoy attempting to navigate the English Channel, and his plan to refight The Three Days' Battle of Portland.

The Dutch victory at the battle of Dungeness in November 1652 left the the Dutch navy in control of the Channel through the winter of 1652-3 and allowed a revival of trade and commerce, but by early February 1653, the English fleet had been refitted and reorganised; and around eighty ships put to sea on 11th February under the joint command of the generals-at-sea Robert Blake, George Monck and Richard Deane to intercept Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp, who was expected to escort a large merchant fleet homeward-bound from the Mediterranean.

Steve's order of battle for the Dutch Fleet at Portland.
This is the biggest of the battles staged so far and we can expect to see a lot of lovely models, thirty-nine precisely, out on the table for this one.

Following Dungeness, the English had reorganised their Navy. The fleet was now divided into three squadrons – Red (Centre), White (Van) and Blue (Rear). Generals at Sea Deane and Monck were sent to support Blake. 

General at Sea George Monck

Monck (in his very first action at sea) was given command of the White (Van) and amused his seamen with such land-lubber orders as “Wheel to the Right”. However, he was a very quick learner as events will prove. 

General at Sea Richard Deane

Deane was a gunnery expert, having commanded the New Model Army’s artillery and unusually held joint command with Blake, rather than command the Blue (Rear), which was given to Penn. 

Tromp's fleet of seventy-five warships rendezvoused with the 150 ships of the Mediterranean convoy at La Rochelle early in January 1653. Tromp hoped to sail home through the Channel before the English fleet was ready to put to sea, but stragglers and adverse weather conditions delayed him. The Dutch convoy finally reached the mouth of the Channel on 16th February. 

Steve's order of battle for the Dutch Fleet at Portland

The English generals planned to attack Tromp in the deeper waters of the western Channel, where the Dutch fleet was far from home and could not salvage damaged ships easily. However, the width of the Channel at its western end meant that the English fleet had to cover a wider area in order to ensure that the Dutch did not slip past.

Blake was determined not to let Tromp evade him, as de Ruyter did the previous year, and spread his fleet across the Channel in the hope of making contact. When they did, off Portland Bill, the English were widely dispersed: Blake and Dean had about 20 ships with them, the rest of the Red Squadron were some way astern and down wind. 

The battle setup for Portland on Day 1.
See the orders of battle above for details of the respective divisions.

The Blue squadron was some way ahead, whilst the White was several miles to the south and would have to tack in order to reach the rest of the fleet.

Seeing the English dispersed and Blake isolated, Tromp seized the opportunity to destroy him before the other English squadrons could come to his rescue and accordingly ordered all four of his squadrons to turn down wind and charge Blake. Blake turned into the wind, hove to in line, and awaited the onslaught in what one historian termed “the Balaclava of the sea.”

Steve's 'Collection Plate' with a wonderful depiction by Mark Myers of Blake meeting the charge of the Dutch fleet in line ahead. 

Penn reacted by turning into the wind and tacking in order to attack the nearest Dutch squadron, which was de Ruyter’s. Lawson decided not to attack up wind in Blake’s aid and be overwhelmed. Instead, he made the risky move of passing Blake to the south and then tacking, following Penn into action. Monck began to tack northwards, but it would take many hours before he could join in.

One of the maps from Three Decks illustrating the previously thought arrangement of the Dutch Fleet at the Battle of Portland
Battle of Portland, 18th February 1652/53 - 20th February 1652/53

There is some dispute over the Dutch squadrons. Traditionally, only three were shown with de Ruyter to port of Tromp and Evertsen to starboard (the two maps in the Three Decks page). Modern research now has de Ruyter and Floriszoon to starboard of Tromp and Evertsen to port, as shown below:

This is a most interesting fight. Like Dungeness, it involved three of the most celebrated admirals in history – Tromp, de Ruyter and Blake. Also, the defence of Blake’s small group of ships against the Dutch is considered by some historians as being the crucial event that convinced the English Generals at Sea to introduce the line of battle, which they used for the first time in the next battle, the Gabbard.

In the next post Steve refights The Three Days' Battle of Portland.

As always, more anon.

JJ

The Battle of Dungeness, 30th November 1652 - General at Sea.

In the previous post, link below, Capt. Steve picked up the situation that developed after the Battle of Kentish Knock, the subject of his previous refight, and laid out his orders of battle and battle set up for the battle of Dungeness as Blake and Tromp renewed their struggle for control of the English Channel.

 

JJ's Wargames - The Battle of Dungeness, Planning & Preparation

As in the previous games Steve is using General at Sea by Iain Stanford and incorporating as yet unpublished rule updates.

As mentioned in the Planning and Preparation post, Blake's fleet was much reduced since Kentish knock following the relocating of several of his squadrons to the Baltic and Mediterranean under the assumption that the Dutch would be in no immediate position to pose a challenge so soon after their recent defeat.

This decision was to be proved wrong as the resourceful Tromp, who took command of the Dutch fleet, made rapid progress to restore morale and ships to create a force ready and able to challenge the English and escort a Dutch convoy past the Downs, in the December of 1652.

The setup for the game picks up the situation as Tromp tracked Blake's movement along the Kent coast with shoals keeping the two fleets beyond cannon range but now seeing Blake forced to turn south as the the Dungeness headland loomed into view.

With a strong wind from the north-west, Blake had the weather gauge, but with the shorter winter day leaving just eight turns of daylight for the two fleets to conclude matters before darkness would bring any fighting to and end.

Blake's smaller fleet can be seen to the left (note each model stand can represent three to four actual ships as laid out in the orders of battle above) as Dungeness headland looms into view and a fight with the Dutch fleet under Tromp is inevitable, when Blake makes his turn. 

Steve picks up the narrative:

At the end of Turn One and Blake begins to to turn to avoid the shallows off Dungeness headland, whilst Tromp prepares to tack and attack.

Turn One - Blake begins to to turn to avoid the shallows off Dungeness

End of Turn Two and Tromp, Evertsen and de Ruyter tack seeing three Dutch stands fail their tack test, become disrupted, but manage to recover, as Blake speeds up making best use of a beam wind.

 

Turn Two - The Dutch have tacked as the English make best speed with a beam wind.

End of Turn Three and the Dutch close in, beating against the north-west wind, as Blake slows his progress to allow his squadron to close up as he opens fire at long range to no effect.

Turn Three - The English open ineffectual fire at long range.

End of Turn Four and Tromp and his second exchange long range fire with Blake and his leading stand, leaving no damage to the English, but Tromp receives level 1 damage.

Turn Four - Tromp comes of worse in the first exchange of fire between the leading elements of the English and Dutch fleets.

One of de Ruyter's squadron clips the shoals and goes aground.

Turn Four - One of de Ruyter's squadron clips the shoals and goes aground.

End of Turn Five and the fighting intensifies as Blake passes Tromp and turns back in support of his squadron whilst Tromp and his second receive damage in the close range exchanges with Blake's squadron that sees Tromp scattered but able to recover and survive his 'risk to the C-in-C' test.

Turn Five - The fighting intensifies and Tromp and his second receive damage in the close range exchanges with Blake's squadron.

Further along the English line, Lane opens fire at long range but to no effect.

Turn Five - Lane opens fire at long range but to no effect.

End of Turn Six and Tromp is raked by Blake's second and is now at level 2 damage and disrupted, whilst more of Tromp's squadron receive damage as do Everten's as they close the range with Lane.

Turn Six - Tromp is raked by Blake's second and is left at level 2 damage and disrupted, whilst more of Tromp's squadron receive damage as do Everten's as they close the range with Lane.

End of Turn Seven and the rearmost stand of Lane's squadron is raked and broken through by de Ruyter, but other Dutch stands fail to break through, having now been raked as they came into contact.

Turn Seven - The fighting around Lane's squadron leaves his rearmost stand raked and broken through by de Ruyter.

Blake breaks through a Dutch stand as he returns to aid his squadron.

Turn Seven - Blake keeps up the pressure as he breaks through a Dutch stand and returns to the fight around his squadron.

End of Turn Eight and the stand at the rear of Lane's squadron is raked again and left at level 2 damage and disrupted is only just holding on. However Tromp is taking a battering from Blake as Floriszoon's squadron finally comes to his rescue.

Turn Eight - Lane's rearmost stand is raked again and left at level 2 damage and disrupted, whilst Tromp is taking a battering from Blake.

Both fleets were firing away for all they were worth as darkness fell and night brought the game to an end.

Steve's assessment of the fight:

Tromp managed to bring his numbers to bear but the Dutch were finding it hard to damage the more powerful English ships, even at close range, with their best prospect being to overwhelm the smaller English hired merchantmen at the rear.

Thank you to Steve for a very entertaining exploration of some of the key battles of the First Anglo-Dutch War with his lovely collection of models, and I know he is contemplating how to produce some games for the Second and Third Wars as well as an idea around using his respective fleets as stand-ins for some Baltic Wars action between the Swedes and Danes.

So hopefully we will see some more 17th century naval action with General at Sea here on JJ's. In the meantime, I've been off on my travels and will be picking back up on the career of one of England's and Britain's greatest admirals, Robert Blake, when I visit the scene of one of his greatest victories, recorded by his opponents as a defeat.

As always, more anon.

JJ