It was in June, 1653, that the two fleets finally came together for
the deciding bout. Both countries had seen that a big naval fight must
come sooner or later, and both had gone on building ships as hard as
they could to meet the danger.
When each fleet was about ninety ships strong, they met at sea.
Unfortunately Admiral Blake had been laid up in England with an old
wound, while the Dutch fleet was under three of their best admirals,
tough and plucky old sea-dogs all of them--Van Tromp, De Witt, and
Ruyter. For a whole day the two fleets were engaged, both sides
hammering away stubbornly and well, but by nightfall neither had
gained much.
Next day they went at it again, and if anything the advantage was
beginning to rest with the Dutch, when suddenly, in the afternoon, a
fresh ship came banging its way through the rear of the Dutch fleet.
It was Blake!
His return seemed to put new life into the British. They went at it
again with all their might. They boarded Van Tromp's ship; he blew her
up and escaped to another; but in the end, with his fleet shattered
and broken, he had to make his retreat under cover of night as best he
could.
The British thus remained masters of the Channel, with eleven good
Dutch men-of-war as prizes and eight more of them sent to the bottom.
Then it was said that Blake's pennant was the whip that had driven
outsiders from off the seas.
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