Chapter XI: The Sovereignty of the Seas

THE FIGHT FOR THE TRADE.

Notwithstanding the check which they had received in their career, the marine power--both naval and merchant--of the Dutch kept on increasing. The hostilities against Spain, conducted under Cromwell, had transferred the Spanish carrying trade to the Dutch from the English ships, which had previously enjoyed it. The Dutch had also challenged the English merchantman in his own carrying trade, as well as becoming general carriers for all Europe; so much so that they were termed "The wagoners of all the seas."

It was the contest for the money value of the "command" of the seas which was really being waged, and the commerce of distant continents was the prize which would fall to the victor's share. Vessels of the Dutch and other nations were ordered to heave to, or were stopped by a shot across their bows, not only to compel observance of the supremacy of the flag, but also for opportunity to search their holds for the goods which the searchers might consider should have been carried in English ships.

The Dutch had agreed to acknowledge the English flag in the British seas, but the English claimed it should be saluted on all. In 1663, De Ruyter and Admiral Lawson had almost come to cannon shots in the Mediterranean over salutes claimed for the flag, and recriminations and searchings had extended to the waters of the far East Indies, where the Dutch, who had taken the Cape of Good Hope from the Portuguese, were competing with the English ships for the merchant trade.

Soon, under Charles II., another Dutch war (1665-67) blazed out, during which De Ruyter sailed up the Thames to Gravesend and destroyed the ships at Chatham and in the Medway, and London was for the first time startled by the sound of an enemy's guns. Again the success was but temporary, for at the close of the war New Amsterdam in America, and with it the command of the Hudson River, was ceded to the English. The name of the new territory then obtained was changed to New York, in honour of the Duke of York, the King's brother, which English and royal name it still retains, although now forming the principal maritime city of the Republic of the United States. With the booty came, in the articles of peace, the old-time ascription of sovereignty to the British flag. It was again agreed by one of the articles of the treaty:

"That the ships and vessels of the so United Provinces, as well men-of-war as others, meeting any man-of-war of the said King of Great Britain in the British seas, shall strike their flag and lore the topsail in such manner as the same hath been formerly observed in any times whatsoever."[55]

[55] Treaty of Breda, 1667.

But the rivalry was too intense to continue much longer without coming to a definite climax. The "command" foreseen by Raleigh was at stake. Both nations had the maritime instinct, and both the genius of colonizing power, so that one or the other of them must give place and leave to the survivor the supreme possession of all that this command implied.

Formal negotiations between the governments had been rife, but the vital test was the supremacy due to the flag. An English royal yacht was ordered to sail through the Dutch men-of-war in the channel and to fire on them if they did not strike their flags. An ultimatum was sent summoning Holland to acknowledge the right of the English crown to the sovereignty of the British seas and to order its fleets to lower their flags to the smallest English man-of-war.[56]

[56] Mahan.

Thus the third and final war came on in 1672 and continued until 1674.

The plain red fighting flag of the English navy of the day was flying at the fore on the men-of-war as the signal to "engage the enemy," and the ensign red was at the stern of both men-of-war and merchantmen as the national ensign. War immediately commenced, and while the Royal Navy was battling with its guns, the merchant navy of England was cutting into the carrying trade of the Dutch, so much so that at its close the British merchant ships had captured the greater part of the foreign business of the enemy, and by thus exhausting their earnings, and reducing the fighting resources of the Dutch, contributed to the final victory almost equally with the exploits of the men-of-war.

The contest, though short, was very sharp. The strife had been for the merchant carrying trade of the world, and when it was won, whole colonies were transferred with it to the victorious English.

During the interval which had followed since the previous war the English had returned to the Dutch their newly-acquired possession of New York in exchange for the Dutch possessions in Guiana, the boundaries of whose territories then transferred formed the subject of the Venezuela excitement of 1896; but now they took both these countries back, while the Island of St. Helena, which, in the beginning of the war had been captured by the Dutch by an expedition sent from their colony at the Cape of Good Hope, was again recovered to the British flag. These possessions formed only a portion of the victor's spoil. Above all of these and other great money results, the old sea spirit again asserted itself, and setting into inferior position the additions to the realm, or the compensations exacted for the expenses of the war, the final treaty declares among its first clauses the lordly renewal of the centuries-old right of the respect and salute due to the nation's flag:

"In due acknowledgment on their part of the King of Great Britain's right to have his flag respected in the seas hereafter mentioned, shall and do declare and agree, that whatever ship or vessels belonging to the said United Provinces, whether vessels of war or others, or whether single or in fleets, shall meet in any of the seas from Cape Finisterre to the middle point of the land Van Staten, in Norway, with any ships or vessels belonging to His Majesty of Great Britain, whether these ships be single or in great number, if they carry His Majesty's of Great Britain flag or Jack, the aforesaid Dutch vessels or ships shall strike their flag and lower their topsail in the same manner and with as much respect as hath at any time, or in any place, been formerly practised towards any ships of His Majesty of Great Britain or his predecessors, by any ships of the States General or their predecessors."[57]

[57] Treaty of Westminster, Charles II. and Holland, 1674.

The "Jack" of His Majesty Charles II., which was the sign of His Majesty's ships, was the two-crossed "additional" Jack of his father, which had been restored to the navy at the Restoration, and as shown on the _Naseby_ (20).

This Jack was flying at the bow and on the mizzen of the ships of war, and at the stern was the sign of nationality, the "ensign red" with the St. George cross.

The ensign red which the ships of that royal navy bore when they thus won the final supremacy of the sea from the navy of Holland, was the flag worn also by the British merchantmen of the time, and on them witnessed the obtaining of that other command, then won from the Dutch, "_the command of the trade, which is the command of the riches of the world_." To this victory the merchant mariner, by his seamanship and energy, had done his full share, and had won his right to wear it as his own. Worthily, therefore, at this present day do the merchant ships of Britain wear the red ensign on every sea, in every clime, in rightful acknowledgment of the part their predecessors played in the gaining of the supremacy of the sea.

This supremacy, and still more the spirit of sea supremacy, has ever remained dominant in the souls of British seamen.

When in March, 1889, the harbour of Apia, in Samoa, was devastated by a terrific cyclone, and all the ships of other nations dragged their anchors and were driven ashore, it was with this native spirit that the British sailors slipped their cables and set out for their ocean home on the open sea. As the British man-of-war breasted the hurricane and battled through the breakers at the harbour mouth, the American sailors on their flagship _Rodney_, sinking with fires extinguished[58] inside the bar, cheered her as she passed, a cheer which rang round the world, and the bold _Calliope_, with her British ensign above her, and her "hearts of oak" within, won her way to safety far out in the wildest storm.

[58] R. L. Stevenson: "Letters from Samoa."

With such widespread venture in her people, such spirit in her ships and record in her flag, no wonder is it that the British Navy and the British merchant marine exceed in number and in power those of any other nation on the globe. Well, therefore, with lusty throats and cheerful hearts, Britannia's children sing:

"_Rule, Britannia;
Britannia rules the waves!_"