The Frozen Fleet

One of the many fascinating aspects of studying history is reading about circumstances that existed in the past that are difficult for us to comprehend today and seeing how they dramatically altered the events of their time.  Such is the case of a Dutch war fleet being captured by a French cavalry detachment on 23 January 1795.

In autumn 1794, French General Charles Pichegru was ordered by the new Directoire to invade Holland with his Army of the North.  Among his orders, he was told, ‘And grab their navy, if you get a chance.’ [1] The Stadhouder of Holland (an official responsible for maintaining peace and order, in this case Prince William of Orange) and the local English military commander were taken totally by surprise.  And for the English, a Paris-friendly Holland with its formidable navy arrayed against them was one of their worst nightmares.

Or so it would seem.  Actually, there was disunity in the British camp.  Prince William asked for urgent military assistance in reaction to the situation.  Prime Minister Pitt refused to honor the request, calculating that the collapse of Holland would benefit British trade in the West Indies as their Dutch competitor would be severely weakened. [2]

The French saw things differently.  For them, it was, ‘We need Spanish and Dutch ships with whose help we would hasten to the banks of the Thames and destroy the New Carthage.’ [3]

One problem the French had, especially in the advance to the north, were the dikes that the defenders could open at will to drown the invading forces.  Mother Nature would soon deal unexpectedly with them!  That winter, temperatures fell to the lowest point of the century, leaving the waterways frozen over with ice.  Opening the dikes was no longer a viable defensive option.

A message was sent to Pichegru saying, ‘Holland is now consolidated earth.  The rivers that surround it, the floods that can protect it in time of crisis, are as hard as the frozen ground.  Amsterdam is connected to Paris by a stretch of paved road.’ [4] He understood what he was expected to do.

In December 1794, the English slowly withdrew from most of Holland leaving Pichegru to move in and become proclaimed a hero even though he did not really ‘conquer’ any territory, merely occupying deserted land.  The abandoned Dutch loyalist forces had no hope without English support, so the Dutch revolutionaries succeeded in taking over and setting up the Batavian Republic on 19 January 1795.  As Prince William fled to England, he ordered Admiral of the Fleet Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen to anchor his fleet in the Marsdiep, between the mainland of the Helder and Texel Island.

Unfortunately for the fleet, the weather took a massive change for the worse.  First, a drop in temperature heralded by a week of clear skies froze the inner waters of the bay.  Days later, the exit to the North Sea was sealed by ice.  The fleet was operationally trapped.  Then the hammer fell after a north-western gale left all fourteen warships, plus several merchant ships, solidly locked in ice.  Movement was no longer possible.  Captain Reyntjes, the oldest and most senior officer in the Dutch fleet and in temporary command of it, realized he had an extremely serious decision to make.  If the French ground forces attacked his fleet while it was immobilized in the ice, he had no choice but to spike his cannons and scuttle his fleet to prevent their capture. [5]

Pichegru ordered a military unit to rush to the area to take advantage of the situation.  Commandant Louis Joseph Lahure, a Belgian-Dutch officer, led the strike force approaching the trapped fleet.  He reached the area on 22 January and set up camp.  During that night, a rider rode past them to deliver an extremely history-changing message to Captain Reyntjes. [6] It told him that the rebels had taken control of Holland and they ordered that no resistance be given to French forces.  That order decided the outcome of the next day’s action.

Commandant Lahure wondered at his chances of attacking the locked-in fleet.  He had 780 foot soldiers, 128 hussars (cavalry) and 39 gunners with 4 small bronze cannons. [7] The ships he was going up against had hundreds of cannons and their oaken hulls were imperious to his potential cannon fire.  He had no chance but to brazen it out, which is exactly what he did. 

He left his cannons behind and advanced with his 128 hussars, not even knowing if the ice would support their cumulative weight.  He gambled that the fog that had arisen that night would mask the puny size of his overall force. [8] He needn’t have worried.  When he reached the fleet, Captain Reyntjes looked down from his flagship and made the following offer: ‘Let’s discuss such serious matters over dinner…’ [9] The meal was actually breakfast. [10]

During the meal, the two sides agreed to wait for orders, which is what they did.  Reyntjes later wrote that “Five days later, the Dutch crews swore an oath to comply with French orders and maintain naval discipline, but were allowed to remain under the Dutch flag.” [11] The Dutch fleet was now an ally of the French and would work against the English, much to London’s dismay.

However, there is a controversy about the event.  The French wrote about it making it sound is if some sort of fighting occurred, but the evidence available to us today refutes this assertion.  No fighting at all took place during this most unusual of events in military history, where a cavalry unit actually captured a fleet of formidable warships stuck in the ice! [12] The feat itself is amazing enough without any need for embellishment.

Sources

  1. Weather p.76.[↩]
  2. Ibid., p.78.[↩]
  3. Ibid.[↩]
  4. Ibid., p.80.[↩]
  5. Smithsonian.[↩]
  6. Weather pp.82-83.[↩]
  7. Ibid., p.82.[↩]
  8. Ibid., p.84.[↩]
  9. Ibid.[↩]
  10. HistoryNet.[↩]
  11. Smithsonian.[↩]
  12. HistoryNet[↩]
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