Vlieter incident
conflict in 1799
In the Vlieter incident of 30 August 1799 a Batavian Navy fleet under Schout-bij-nacht Samuel Story surrendered to the Royal Navy. The incident occurred during the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in the tidal trench between Texel and the mainland that was known as De Vlieter, near Wieringen.
Background
During the War of the First Coalition, the Dutch Republic was invaded in 1794 by the armies of the French Republic, which led to the flight of Stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange, to England, and the proclamation of the Batavian Republic. The Dutch now changed sides in the war, entering into an offensive and defensive alliance with France.
In the course of the War of the Second Coalition, which actually was a continuation of the first war, without France, Great Britain, or the Batavian Republic having concluded a peace, Great Britain and Russia decided to launch an invasion of the Batavian Republic in the peninsula of North Holland in August 1799. It was hoped that this invasion would cause a popular uprising of the Dutch population against a French-imposed republic. The former Stadtholder and his eldest son the Hereditary Prince tried to support the expedition by propaganda efforts and intrigues with disaffected officers. The loyalty of the Batavian navy was especially in doubt, as this was a hotbed of Orangist sentiment. The British Major General George Don, who conducted a reconnaissance of the Republic in July, estimated that the Helder squadron of the Batavian fleet would fall into British hands without a fight, if the Allies played their cards right.
To accomplish this bloodless capture, the Allied fleet came stocked with the Prinsenvlag, pro-Orangist pamphlets, and Dutch émigrés, the most important of whom was the Hereditary Prince.
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