History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 157

The Dutch navy acted in co-operation with the English in William III's struggle against
France, and always under the command of an English admiral. When Tourville
defeated the Anglo-Dutch fleet under Torrington off Beachy Head, the Dutch were
especially damaged and complained that the English had left them in the lurch, and
subsequent investigation proved that Torrington was guilty and he was disgraced. In
1692 a powerful Anglo-Dutch fleet under Russel defeated Tourville off La Hogue, and
half the French fleet was destroyed. Tourville had his revenge when he inflicted very
heavy losses on an Anglo-Dutch convoy off Lagos.
In the War of the Spanish Succession the Dutch and English fleets again co-operated.
A Dutch fleet of 40 sail under Van Almonde and an English fleet of like strength under
Rooke and Ormonde unsuccessfully attacked Cadiz, but had a splendid victory in Vigo
Bay over the French and Spanish fleets, and part of the West Indian silver fleet fell
into their hands. In 1704 the combined English and Dutch under Rooke and
Callenburgh captured Gibraltar, but an English garrison only was left in the fortress.
In the Fourth Dutch War there was an indecisive action at the Dogger Bank between
Parker, convoying 200 merchantmen with 7 ships, and Zoutman with a like number,
convoying 70 ships. Dutch commerce suffered most severely in this war from English
privateers; in the first month of the war alone 200 Dutch merchantmen were captured.
4. 3.
A certain amount of intercourse can be proved in shipbuilding, and a few nautical
terms perhaps entered the English vocabulary through this channel. It does not seem
that the large ships of the time of Henry V were all English built, for it is stated as a
grievance in 1442 that Englishmen were prevented from buying or building ships in
Prussia and the Hanse towns. During the 15th century endeavours to improve shipbuilding were being made in many countries, and it is at this time that the large
herring-busses were built by the Dutch and that they first appeared in English waters.
They were an example for English builders, and we soon find large ships capable of
holding 200 passengers being built here.
In one subsidiary branch of ship-building help was obtained from Holland in the 17th
century. Among the reforms which the Duke of Buckingham instituted while Lord High
Admiral was the encouragement of the Dutch to settle here and establish the
manufacture of great cables and other sorts of cordage for the navy; for this purpose
he provided hemp and other materials, and put up houses and yards at Chatham and
elsewhere.
4. 4.
A number of names of various kinds of ships and boats entered Middle English from
Low Dutch.
Shout (13.., Coer de Lion), a flat-bottomed boat; ME. schoute, shute is probably from
M.Du. schûte, with the initial sk- sound assimilated to sh-. A later form of the same
word but preserving the original initial sound of M.Du. is Scout (1419), a flat-bottomed
boat, ‘a Dutch vessel’, galliot rigged, used in the river trade of Holland (Smyth, Sailor's

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