Friday, February 21, 2020

Imagine That

Dutch Attack on the Medway, June 1667
Pieter Cornelisz van Soest
Imagine, if you will, an enemy naval force sailing into the Chesapeake, right into Naval Station Norfolk, trashing the place, wrecking a bunch of ships, then towing a Nimitz-class carrier away. Said carrier then put on display as a tourist attraction in the enemy country.

Kind of a kick in the you-know-whats for a major naval power, innit?

Well, back in June of 1667, the Dutch did exactly that. To the English Royal Navy!



That's also how New Amsterdam became New York City...

Imagine that.




Interesting reading here:



Love that History Guy!

12 comments:

  1. Sarge, you always have educational and interesting posts. The History Guy is correct about most people not knowing much if anything about the Anglo Dutch wars, whose ripples reach into current days. Guess the conditions giving rise toTrump, Bloomberg and even AOC could be traced to that era.
    For another take on the value of NYC - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qeilxKluTCU

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  2. Actions have consequences. Don't start something with your mouth your ass can't back up. Don't start none, don't get none. And a whole slew full of other pithy phrases.

    The Anglos have always had a long dark memory. Else they wouldn't still be somewhat arsed up over Rome, the Viking invasions, the Norman Invasion, the various Scottish invasions and so forth. Found it funny that they never really seemed to get assed up over the Saxon Invasion, which really screwed the islands up far more than the Romans or the Vikings or the Normans.

    Back to that long, dark memory, it's one thing to score coup against them one time or another, but the Anglos as a group have seemed to pull out the winning hand more often than not, even if it takes a few years or more.

    And I am pretty certain that the Anglo-Brits were still assed up over Scapa Flow when WWII came around.

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    Replies
    1. Not assed up enough regarding Scapa Flow, see Günther Prien and U-47.

      Also worth noting is that the "Anglo" in Anglo-Saxon comes from the Angles of Anglia, i.e. southern Denmark.

      Then there are the Britons...

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  3. Stepping back and trying to take in the big picture it looks like the kingdoms of the Continent were in a race to build a new and better world. It seems obvious today for certain values of obvious) that a new and better world could only arise from the ashes of the old, so in a sense the race would only determine which kingdoms had more rather than less say over the process of their own destruction. I wonder if they saw that coming? And I wonder what people will think about our kingdoms 400 years hence?

    Looking more closely at details of the various races is fascinating. The Raid on the Medway brings to mind the SAS motto -- "Who Dares Wins." And that obviously brings to mind Thucydides and "Fortune Favo(u)rs the Bold." What would it have been like to be a Dutch Sailor on that raid? Or indeed a Spartan winning big against the Athenians?

    Great post Sarge, thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Will there be a sentient species around in 400 years?

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    2. I understand that feral pigs are quite bright. Perhaps the reek will inherit the Earth. Kidding aside, I'm optimistical about the ape-lizards.👍😁

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    3. I'm with you on the optimism, then again, there are a great many ape-lizards these days who don't really think...

      Oh yeah, I see what you did there. 🤣

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  4. Dutch ships exited the Medway with brooms tied to the mastheads...a clean sweep!

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    Replies
    1. (Don McCollor)...Even a more humiliating naval defeat was the capture of the Dutch fleet by French cavalry in the 1795 Battle of Texal (the ships were frozen in the ice)...

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    2. Yes, indeed. There was a post on that three years ago, here. Ouch!

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