Vlieter Incident - Aftermath

Aftermath

After this initial success, the Anglo-Russian expedition soon ran into difficulties. The civilian population of North Holland did not display the fervor for the cause of Orange that the Prince had expected. The Batavian army proved remarkably resilient and managed in cooperation with the French army of occupation to deal the Allies defeats at the Battle of Bergen and Battle of Castricum. The Allies therefore evacuated North Holland at the end of October, 1799.

As this was the second surrender of a Batavian fleet in short order (after the Saldanha Bay surrender of 1796), the authorities of the Batavian Republic decided to convene a court-martial ((Dutch) Hoge Zeekrijgsraad) on October 8, 1799, to exact exemplary punishment of the officers responsible for the surrender, and of the mutineers. As these were away in England the trial had to wait till the first returned to the Netherlands on parole. Those were arrested. Only Story himself, Van Braam and Van Capellen remained outside the reach of the court. They were eventually tried in absentia.

One captain, N. Connio, of the brig Gier was condemned to death, and executed on board the guard ship Rozenburg on December 27, 1799, to the consternation of the detained officers. Captain Dirk Hendrik Kolff of the Utrecht was also condemned to death, but he managed to escape before his execution.

Captain De Jong was acquitted of the charge of treason, for lack of evidence, but he was convicted of dereliction of duty. He was cashiered; had to undergo a symbolic simulated execution (whereby a sword was swung over his head), and was banished for life. The trials were then suspended in hope that the absent officers would become available. In July 1801 the trial was resumed with new indictments against officers who had surrendered ships on earlier occasions or been otherwise derelict. Several other officers were punished in an attempt to make clear to the officer corps that surrender without a fight was unacceptable.

In June 1802 the Hoge Zeekrijgsraad was replaced by a permanent court, the Hoge Militaire Vierschaar (High Military Court). This court eventually conducted the trials of Story, Van Capellen, Van Braam, and Kolff in absentia, after it had become clear that these officers would not return to the Netherlands after the Peace of Amiens in 1802, when they were released as POWs. They were convicted of dereliction of duty, cowardice, and disloyalty. The court declared them perjurious (because they had broken their oath of loyalty), without honor and "infamous", and they were cashiered, and banished for life, on penalty of execution (by beheading in the case of Story; by death by firing squad in the case of the other three).

Story moved to Germany. He protested his innocence to the very end, publishing a public defense in the form of a book. He died in Cleves in 1811, before he could ask the new King of the Netherlands for rehabilitation.

The others were more fortunate in this respect. They were fully rehabilitated after the Orangist party was restored to power in 1814. Van Capellen became a vice-admiral in the new Royal Netherlands Navy, and commanded a squadron at the Bombardment of Algiers in 1816.