The capitulation of Saldanha Bay was the surrender to the British of a Batavian expeditionary force sent to recapture the Dutch Cape Colony in 1796 as part of the East Indies theatre of the French Revolutionary Wars. During the Flanders campaign of the War of the First Coalition, French troops overran the Dutch Republic in December 1794, leading to the latter becoming a French client state known as the Batavian Republic. Britain, concerned by the threat that the Cape Colony now posed to British trade with the East Indies, sent an invasion force under Vice-Admiral of the Blue Sir George Elphinstone that landed at Simon's Town in June 1795 and forced the colony's surrender in a short campaign. Elphinstone subsequently reinforced the British occupational garrison and stationed a squadron at the colony.
Though not yet aware of the fall of the Cape Colony, the Batavian government, worried by rumours of British attacks against the Dutch East India Company's colonies, decided to send a Batavian Navy squadron to the Dutch East Indies via the Cape in November 1795. The squadron, which was ordered to recapture the Cape Colony if necessary, comprised three ships of the line and six smaller vessels under Schout-bij-nacht Engelbertus Lucas Sr. Security regarding the operation was weak and before Lucas set sail the British government became aware of it and warned Elphinstone, who further reinforced the Cape. Lucas' journey took nearly six months, during which his squadron ran low on drinking water, leading to a near-mutinous state among his crews. On its arrival at the Cape Colony, the Batavian squadron anchored in Saldanha Bay to take on fresh water before deciding to abandon the operation and sail to the French colony of Isle de France in the Indian Ocean.
On 15 August 1796 a larger British fleet under Elphinstone discovered Lucas' squadron and trapped it in the bay. Aware that resistance would be futile and with his crews in open revolt, Lucas surrendered unconditionally on 17 August. The Batavian ships were commissioned into the Royal Navy, joining the squadron at the Cape Colony; Elphinstone was subsequently made Baron Keith in recognition of his achievement. Lucas' operation did however postpone an ultimately cancelled British invasion of Isle de France. Lucas faced a court-martial on his return to Holland, but died on 21 June 1797 before it began. The main responsibility for the surrender was laid at his feet but Lucas' death forestalled a conviction for dereliction of duty, and the other Batavian officers were all acquitted. The Cape Colony was not attacked again before the end of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1802, when the Treaty of Amiens returned it to the Batavian Republic.
Background
In 1795, the armies of the French Republic overran the Dutch Republic. Dutch opponents of stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange, referred to as Patriots (as opposed to the supporters of the stadtholder, who were known as Orangists), many of whom had returned with the French army from exile in France, proclaimed the Batavian Republic after the Batavian Revolution in January 1795. This event alarmed the government of Great Britain, erstwhile allies of the Dutch Republic in the War of the First Coalition, as the Dutch colonial empire included a number of strategically important colonies in the East Indies. The key to controlling European access to the region was the Dutch Cape Colony on the tip of Southern Africa; a naval force based there could dominate trade routes between Europe and the East Indies, in particular the economically vital links between Britain and British India.
To ensure that the Cape Colony did not become a French naval base, Secretary of State for War Henry Dundas ordered a large expeditionary force to sail for the colony in March 1795. The force comprised two squadrons and 500 troops, all under the overall control of Vice-Admiral Sir George Elphinstone; more substantial reinforcements followed. Arriving on 10 June in False Bay, Elphinstone then conducted two months of fruitless negotiations with Governor Abraham Josias Sluysken. On 7 August, with negotiations stalled, Elphinstone ordered an attack on Dutch positions at Muizenberg. The Dutch defenders withdrew, but Elphinstone's forces were low on food and ammunition and not numerous enough to launch a major attack on Cape Town. On 14 September the arrival of British reinforcements under General Alured Clarke convinced Sluysken to surrender the colony.
Elphinstone turned his attention to planning operations against the Dutch East Indies and the French Indian Ocean colony of Isle de France. He sailed for Madras in his flagship to take command of the East Indies Station, but maintained a strong garrison and naval presence at the Cape Colony under Sir James Henry Craig and Commodore John Blankett. Much of his squadron subsequently dispersed on operations across the Indian Ocean. While Elphinstone was consolidating his position, the Batavian government determined in November 1795 to send an expedition to inspect its new colonies in the Dutch East Indies, as the previous owner, the Dutch East India Company, was about to be nationalised. The expedition was to call at the Cape Colony on its way; if that colony had been captured, an attempt at recapture could be made, but only if this was feasible. The expedition did not carry a large number of troops or boats to land them. If the colony was in enemy hands the expedition was to bypass the Cape Colony and sail directly for Isle de France.
A squadron was prepared under the command of Schout-bij-nacht Engelbertus Lucas Sr., who had sailed to the East Indies once in 1786, but otherwise had no experience of long expeditionary campaigns. His force comprised three 66-gun ships of the line, Dordrecht, Tromp and Revolutie along with six smaller warships. After calling at the Cape Colony, Lucas was to continue his expedition in order to reinforce the Dutch East Indies.
Lucas' voyage
Lucas' expeditionary force sailed from the Texel on 23 February 1796, together with another squadron destined for the Dutch West Indies, under Vice-admiral Adriaan Braak, intending to pass through the North Sea and around Scotland before entering the Atlantic Ocean and turning south. Unspecified French support for the operation had been promised by the National Convention, but did not materialise. The British North Sea Fleet was actively blockading the Texel and the 16-gun brig sighted the Batavian force putting to sea. Espiegle shadowed Lucas throughout the day, sending a message to Admiral Adam Duncan at Great Yarmouth. On 26 February a small British squadron led by Captain Henry Trollope in detached from the cruising division of Rear-admiral Thomas Pringle and encountered the Batavians, the weaker British making off as Lucas formed a line of battle.
Having successfully evaded pursuit, Lucas followed his planned route, arriving at Las Palmas on Gran Canaria on 13 April. The journey had not been unobserved: a small British warship, the 20-gun under Captain Charles Brisbane, had sighted the Batavian force near Madeira while Mozelle was escorting two merchant ships to Barbados. Leaving the merchant ships to make their way unescorted, Mozelle followed Lucas for several days and then sailed south with all haste to bring a warning to the Cape Colony. Despite noticing Mozelle, Lucas decided not to attack her.
After spending no less than 34 days taking on water and supplies at Las Palmas, Lucas on 26 May sailed to Praia on Cape Verde, before continuing south on 29 May in the direction of the Brazilian coast, hoping to profit from favourable trade winds and currents. In fact, due to persistent calms in the doldrums, the squadron only reached a position off the Brazilian shore on 27 June. The delay led Lucas to decide not to take in more water but to sail directly to the Cape Colony. The Batavian expeditionary force did not encounter another vessel during this time and thus had no information regarding British dispositions when it eventually reached the South-African coast on 26 July. After a council of war aboard Dordrecht, Lucas decided not to reconnoitre Table Bay and on 6 August the squadron anchored in Saldanha Bay.
British agents had observed Lucas' preparations in Holland and reported them in January, more than a month before the expedition sailed. The British Admiralty sent the frigate to the Cape Colony with a warning. Carysfort arrived at the colony in April, but vague accounts of Lucas' mission had reached Elphinstone even earlier, appearing at Madras in March, less than a month after Lucas' departure from the Texel. Sailing from Madras on 23 March, Elphinstone reached the Cape Colony on 23 May where he received detailed reports of the size and status of the Batavian force heading for the colony. The Admiralty had already responded to the threat by diverting substantial resources to the Cape Colony: in addition to Elphinstone and Blankett's forces a convoy of transports led by Captain William Essington arrived on 28 May and a small squadron under Pringle followed on 28 July, joined that day by Mozelle with the most detailed reports to date of Lucas' movements. Subsequent reinforcements arrived from the squadron based in India, so that by August there were seven ships of the line and seven smaller vessels under Elphinstone's command and the garrison of the colony stood at 9,400 troops.
Saldanha Bay
Elphinstone was concerned that the Batavian force might not be sailing for the Cape Colony at all. In May, a French frigate squadron under Counter-admiral Pierre César Charles de Sercey had sailed past the colony without stopping, observed by HMS Sphynx, which it chased back to Simon's Town. If the Batavian force was sailing for the East Indies, it might bypass the Cape Colony altogether. Elphinstone therefore decided to take his fleet out to sea to search for the Batavians. On 6 August Elphinstone sailed southwest from False Bay in search of Lucas, but a fierce storm caught the British, inflicting damage on the ships, including the loss of the mainmast on Monarch and flooding on . The fleet returned to Simon's Bay in a battered state on 12 August, to learn on arrival that Lucas' force lay at anchor to the north. The following day a storm swept the bay. Most of Elphinstone's ships were damaged: both and grounded, and dragged anchors and was almost wrecked.
Lucas had arrived off the colony on 26 July with no knowledge of Elphinstone's dispositions. He had more pressing concerns: it had been several months since his ships had sighted land and his supplies of drinking water were running dangerously low. A significant proportion of his crews were suffering from scurvy and he had decided to send these men to an encampment ashore to facilitate their recovery. Lucas even ordered that the sails on his ships be removed for repairs, rendering his ships temporarily immobile. On 9 August, Lucas was warned by a servant of a Dutch colonist that a superior British force was present and that the settler population would not assist an attack on the British; he was strongly advised to sail away. Lucas, on hearing this, instead sailed deeper into the bay. Craig sent cavalry to Saldanha Bay to harry Batavian shore parties and organised the withdrawal of the local population and livestock to prevent their capture. He followed with a larger force under his own command. Lucas held a council of war with his senior officers, debating whether an attack on Cape Town was practical or whether they should abandon the operation. By 16 August the decision had been made to sail for Isle de France, but Lucas delayed, unwilling to leave his sick men ashore.