History
The Dragon was captured by The Arrow during the British-Russian invasion of Holland.
British-Russian expedition
(8-27-1799 11-19-1799)
- The campaign had two strategic goals:
Take out the Batavian war fleet before it could be used for a French invasion of Great Britain.
Conquer Amsterdam and unleash an anti-revolutionary uprising in the Netherlands to bring down the Batavian Republic and restore the House of Orange-Nassau as stadholders.
The Allied British and Russians invaded the peninsula of North Holland, which at the time was in the Batavian Republic, a puppet state of France in what is now the Netherlands.
On August 22, 1799, there were approximately 200 British war and troop transport ships off the coast of the Kop van Noord-Holland. The weakened Batavian fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Samuel Story, avoided a strike with the British fleet, making the disembarkation of British troops on August 27, on the beach between Petten and Callantsoog, smooth.
Batavian General Daendels was here with 8,000 men (mainly German and Belgian mercenaries). He established his headquarters in Schagerbrug, the main village of Zijpe. At each bridge in the polder, 50 people were ready to disable the bridges during an actual invasion to stop the advance.
In the Zijpe, the so-called Zijpe position was erected along the Ooster Egalement (canal) between Oudesluis and what would later become St. Maartensvlotbrug. On August 30, Daendels withdrew to Alkmaar and the surrounding area. Two days later a large English army unit arrived in the Zijpe. Reinforcements were built in Oudesluis, among others.
The English invasion of Russia came to a point when a clash between the Franco-Batavian troops and the Anglo-Russian troops ended in defeat of the latter.
The subsequent negotiations were short. At the request of the Batavian government, Brune first demanded the return of the Batavian fleet framework. The Duke of York refused to return the ships and then threatened to cross the dyke at Petten, leaving the land around the Zijpe blank.
General Krayenhoff was not impressed by this threat; after all, he had already flooded a large part of North Holland in the previous weeks, and knew that this could be reversed with little effort.
However, Brune was much more impressed with York's threat (or pretended; Krayenhoff mentions some "beautiful horses" that the Duke of York gave as a gift to Brune) and soon agreed to an agreement that was very much in favor of the Allies used to be. This Alkmaar Convention, signed on October 18, did not mention the return of the Batavian fleet.
The British-Russian troops and the orange-minded mutineers were allowed to leave North Holland unhindered.
Description
Type: frigatte
Built: Amsterdam, 1748
Propulsion: sail
Rigging: 3 mast
Dimensions (feet or m)
Length: 140
Width: 36
Draft: 15
Complement: 220
Armament: 24