Springboard to Victory: Great Yarmouth and the Royal Navy’s dominance in the North Sea and the Baltic during the French Wars 1793-1815

摘要

Great Yarmouth is best known for being a seaside resort and earlier as one of the country’s leading herring fisheries ports, but what has been largely forgotten is that during the French Revolutionary War (1792-1802) and the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) it was the main support base for naval operations in the North and Baltic seas due to its strategic location, in particular its proximity to the Texel, where the Dutch fleet was anchored. This was despite the difficulty of getting boats off the beach or out of the harbour in strong easterly winds, which interfered with victualling, replenishment of stores, and transfers of crews to the ships anchored in the Roads and sometimes forcing those ships to cut and run. Nevertheless, Yarmouth became an embarkation and return port for various north European expeditions which placed considerable pressure on the town’s facilities. In July and August 1799 some of Sir John Abercromby’s force for the ill-fated Den Helder campaign assembled in Yarmouth, then in March 1801 Yarmouth was the launch point of Admiral Hyde Parker’s attack on Copenhagen. In 1807 Yarmouth was the springboard for the second naval attack on Copenhagen, commanded by Admiral James Gambier. However, the town’s role in the preparations for the disastrous Walcheren expedition in 1809 was limited to providing only naval stores and water-though it did subsequently receive hundreds of returning sick soldiers.