Battle of Portland

Overview

The naval Battle of Portland, or Three Days' Battle, took place during 18–20 February 1653, during the First Anglo-Dutch War, when the fleet of the Commonwealth of England under General at Sea Robert Blake was attacked by a fleet of the Dutch Republic under Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp escorting merchant shipping through the English Channel.

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

Significance

The Battle of Portland, fought over three days in February 1653, was a major fleet engagement of the First Anglo-Dutch War in which the Dutch Republic's fleet under Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp, escorting merchant shipping through the English Channel, came into direct action with the Commonwealth of England's fleet under General at Sea Robert Blake. The engagement placed two of the war's principal commanders in direct opposition across a sustained multi-day battle, reflecting the intensity of the naval contest for control of the Channel trade routes that lay at the heart of the Anglo-Dutch conflict. The Dutch operational task — protecting a merchant convoy through contested waters — underscored the commercial stakes driving the war, which had been triggered in part by English claims over the right to search Dutch shipping. With Commonwealth forces numbering roughly 12,000 to the Dutch Republic's 8,600, the engagement illustrated the scale of fleet action the war had generated by early 1653.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (4)