Battle of Leghorn

Overview

The naval Battle of Leghorn took place on 4 March 1653, during the First Anglo-Dutch War, near Leghorn (Livorno), Italy. It was a victory of a Dutch squadron under Commodore Johan van Galen over an English squadron under Captain Henry Appleton. Afterwards, another English squadron under Captain Richard Badiley, which Appleton had been trying to join up with, reached the scene in time to observe the capture of the last ships of Appleton's squadron, but was outnumbered and forced to return to Porto Longone.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Leghorn was a Dutch victory in the Mediterranean theater of the First Anglo-Dutch War, fought near Livorno on the Italian coast. Commodore Johan van Galen's squadron defeated and captured the ships of Captain Henry Appleton's English force. A second English squadron under Captain Richard Badiley arrived too late to intervene: Badiley reached the scene only in time to observe the final capture of Appleton's ships and, finding himself outnumbered, was compelled to withdraw to Porto Longone. The battle demonstrated Dutch capacity to contest English naval power beyond northern European waters and denied the English the ability to concentrate their Mediterranean squadrons, as Appleton had been attempting to join Badiley when the engagement was forced upon him.

Commanders (3)