On the 18th of February,
1652-3, Blake, being at the head of eighty sail, and assisted, at his
own request, by colonels Monk and Dean, espied Van Trump, with a fleet
of above one hundred men of war, as Clarendon relates, of seventy by
their own publick accounts, and three hundred merchant ships under his
convoy. The English, with their usual intrepidity, advanced towards
them; and Blake, in the Triumph, in which he always led his fleet,
with twelve ships more, came to an engagement with the main body of
the Dutch fleet, and by the disparity of their force was reduced to
the last extremity, having received in his hull no fewer than seven
hundred shots, when Lawson, in the Fairfax, came to his assistance.
The rest of the English fleet now came in, and the fight was continued
with the utmost degree of vigour and resolution, till the night gave
the Dutch an opportunity of retiring, with the loss of one flagship,
and six other men of war. The English had many vessels damaged, but
none lost. On board Lawson's ship were killed one hundred men, and as
many on board Blake's, who lost his captain and secretary, and himself
received a wound in the thigh.
Blake, having set ashore his wounded men, sailed in pursuit of Van
Trump, who sent his convoy before, and himself retired fighting
towards Bulloign.
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