Battle of the Channel
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| Battle of the Channel (1605) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Eighty Years War | |||||||
 'Naval battle between Dutch and Spanish ships in the Channel, 1605'. From a Dutch print. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Spain |
 Dutch Republic | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Pedro de Zubiaur (DOW) | Willem de Zoete | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
12 galleons 2 frigates | 80 ships | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
2 galleons sunk 400 dead | Several ships sunk | ||||||
The Battle of the Channel was a 1605 naval engagement in the English Channel between a Spanish transport fleet captained by Pedro de Zubiaur and the Dutch armada under Willem de Zoete. The Spanish fleet carried a tercio under Pedro de Sarmiento for the Eighty Years' War, which the Dutch attempted to intercept and destroy. Zubiaur managed to break through overwhelming numerical superiority with a few of his ships and take refuge in Dover, England. However, many of the troops he transported were captured by the Dutch or died in England. The battle was the last deployment of Zubiaur, who died in Dover from his wounds, after which the remaining troops reached their destination in Dunkirk in English ships.
On May 24, 1605, Zubiaur sailed off from Lisbon at the head of eight galleons and two frigates, with the mission to carry 2400 tercio soldiers under maestre de campo Pedro de Sarmiento to Dunkirk. On their way through the English Channel, they were intercepted by an enormous 80-ship fleet of Dutch admiral Willem de Zoete. Learning about Willem's presence, four additional Spanish galleons were sent from Dunkirk to link with Zubiaur and arrived in time.[1]
Battle
Witnessing the disproportion of strengths, Zubiaur ordered the Spanish carriers to head for the allied English port of Dover while he performed a diversionary attack with his own flagship and several other ships readied to fight. Zubiaur and his vessels faced the first 18 Dutch ships in battle for more than a day, sinking multiple enemy ships and dismasting others, which allowed them to follow the rest of the fleet to Dover. Willem attempted to give chase, but the local cannons forced him to withdraw. In exchange for the damage inflicted, Zubiaur had lost two galleons and was wounded himself.[1][2]