Willem Joseph Van Ghent - Life - Third Anglo-Dutch War

Third Anglo-Dutch War

After the second Dutch war Van Ghent was inactive as an admiral for three years. In 1668 he was a member of the Council of State with the States of Utrecht, the government of that province. From May until November 1670 he carried out operations, in cooperation with an English flotilla commanded by Vice-Admiral Thomas Allin, against Algerian corsairs, off the coast of West-Africa. Van Ghent's flotilla consisted of thirteen ships, mostly frigates, from the admiralties of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Zealand. His vice-admirals were Johan de Liefde and Cornelis Evertsen the Younger. Six privateers were captured and burnt and two hundred Christian slaves liberated. As a reward Van Ghent received a golden chain worth eight hundred guilders.

In 1671 war again threatened with England. That summer the Dutch confederate fleet was largely kept busy training in preparation for the conflict. Van Ghent commanded, with the Gouden Leeuw of 90 cannon as his flagship, the third squadron, largely consisting of frigates. His vice-admiral was Isaac Sweers. King Charles II of England that summer tried to create another flag incident to obtain a pretext to declare war. On 24 August the royal yacht Merlin, carrying the wife of the previous English ambassador in the Republic William Temple to London, deliberately sailed through the Dutch fleet being maintained at anchor off Brill. Both De Zeven Provinciën and the Dolphijn saluted firing white smoke, but the Merlin then halted shooting in anger at the Dolphijn. Van Ghent, a personal acquaintance of Temple, let himself be rowed in a boat to the yacht, to inquire why such a hostile attitude was taken. He received the demand that the capital Dutch ships would strike their flag in salute. Indeed by the 1662 treaty Dutch warships were obliged to salute first, but only when meeting English men-of-war; Van Ghent answered he was uncertain whether a yacht counted as such and that it was not his place to create a legal precedent. Charles now instructed the new ambassador, George Downing, to demand from the States-General of the Netherlands that Van Ghent would be severely punished for this insolence, but these refused. After a diplomatic row lasting half a year, Charles declared war, explicitly referring to this incident.

During this Third Anglo-Dutch War Van Ghent first from 24 to 26 May made an attempt to repeat his earlier success at Chatham, but it soon became clear that the English coast had been sufficiently reinforced to repel any attacks. He then participated in the first major sea fight of the war, the Battle of Solebay. Commanding the Dutch vanguard on the Dolphijn, he attacked the Royal James, flagship of Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich commanding the squadron of the blue. Standing on deck Van Ghent was hit by a canister shot that cut off his lower left leg below the knee and penetrated his torso at five places. He tumbled forward, as his flag captain Michiel Kindt put it in his log, "utterly dead". Eventually the Royal James was burnt and Montagu drowned. The corpse of Van Ghent was quickly brought back to the Netherlands on the galliot Walvisch. There it was embalmed because Van Ghent had indicated to his family his desire to be buried in the city of Utrecht and this location was at the time still occupied by French forces. In August 1674 sculptor Rombout Verhulst began work on Van Ghent's grave memorial in the St. Martin's Cathedral, finishing in June 1676. Until that time Van Ghent was temporarily interred at Arnhem; he was reburied at some time before late 1680; the precise date is unknown. The grave memorial is still extant. Van Ghent was deeply mourned in the Republic for having been both a brave and a kind, unpretentious man.