A ROYAL ADMIRAL
Sta,—In your issue of November 27th, in connection with a site for the statue of James II, you mention his merits as a Lord High Admiral. May one add that he was not only a great Lord High Admiral but a great admiral. Off Lowestoft on the 3rd (0.S.) of June, 1665, he fought a great battle with the Dutch. It was a fierce fight with over a hundred ships on each side. Lieutenant Admiral Wassenaer's flagship, the Eendracht,' was blown up. Three officers were killed at James's side. By the afternoon the Dutch were retiring with the loss of seventeen of their finest ships. It is a simple fact that in losses of warships inflicted on the enemy this was the greatest victory of the Dutch Wars, unequalled for over three generations.
At Solebay in 1672 the Duke of York showed equal courage and had to transfer his flag twice. The 'Royal Charles' in June, 1665, remains a unique picture on the canvas of naval history. On board her, in command of the great fleet of England, was the heir to the throne, James, H.R.H. Duke of York, flying the Royal Standard at "the main and the Lord High Admiral's flag at the fore" ; her guns blew up Wassenaer's flagship, and James and Sir William Penn on her quarter-deck saw the sun set on a great victory. "If it had not pleased God," wrote Pepys, "to give us a king and duke that understood the sea, the nation had ere this been quite beaten out of it." It is very much to the credit of Pepys that he remained true to the memory of his old master, probably losing thereby the big sum owing to him from the Crown. Though James never, so to speak, got into historical "pop," he was undoubtedly in his influence on administration our greatest Lord High Admiral, and in teams of losses inflicted on an opposing fleet one of our greatest admirals. His old place by the Admiralty was entirely appropriate, and if he cannot be there one might suggest that Greenwich would be a more fitting spot
Previous page
