Wednesday 15 August 1666

Mighty sleepy; slept till past eight of the clock, and was called up by a letter from Sir W. Coventry, which, among other things, tells me how we have burned one hundred and sixty ships of the enemy within the Fly.1 I up, and with all possible haste, and in pain for fear of coming late, it being our day of attending the Duke of Yorke, to St. James’s, where they are full of the particulars; how they are generally good merchant ships, some of them laden and supposed rich ships. We spent five fire-ships upon them. We landed on the Schelling (Sir Philip Howard with some men, and Holmes, I think; with others, about 1000 in all), and burned a town; and so come away. By and by the Duke of Yorke with his books showed us the very place and manner, and that it was not our design or expectation to have done this, but only to have landed on the Fly, and burned some of their store; but being come in, we spied those ships, and with our long boats, one by one, fired them, our ships running all aground, it being so shoal water. We were led to this by, it seems, a renegado captain of the Hollanders, who found himself ill used by De Ruyter for his good service, and so come over to us, and hath done us good service; so that now we trust him, and he himself did go on this expedition. The service is very great, and our joys as great for it. All this will make the Duke of Albemarle in repute again, I doubt, though there is nothing of his in this. But, Lord! to see what successe do, whether with or without reason, and making a man seem wise, notwithstanding never so late demonstration of the profoundest folly in the world.

Thence walked over the Parke with Sir W. Coventry, in our way talking of the unhappy state of our office; and I took an opportunity to let him know, that though the backwardnesses of all our matters of the office may be well imputed to the known want of money, yet, perhaps, there might be personal and particular failings; and that I did, therefore, depend still upon his promise of telling me whenever he finds any ground to believe any defect or neglect on my part, which he promised me still to do; and that there was none he saw, nor, indeed, says he, is there room now-a-days to find fault with any particular man, while we are in this condition for money. This, methought, did not so well please me; but, however, I am glad I have said this, thereby giving myself good grounds to believe that at this time he did not want an occasion to have said what he pleased to me, if he had had anything in his mind, which by his late distance and silence I have feared. But then again I am to consider he is grown a very great man, much greater than he was, and so must keep more distance; and, next, that the condition of our office will not afford me occasion of shewing myself so active and deserving as heretofore; and, lastly, the muchness of his business cannot suffer him to mind it, or give him leisure to reflect on anything, or shew the freedom and kindnesse that he used to do. But I think I have done something considerable to my satisfaction in doing this; and that if I do but my duty remarkably from this time forward, and not neglect it, as I have of late done, and minded my pleasures, I may be as well as ever I was.

Thence to the Exchequer, but did nothing, they being all gone from their offices; and so to the Old Exchange, where the towne full of the good newes, but I did not stay to tell or hear any, but home, my head akeing and drowsy, and to dinner, and then lay down upon the couch, thinking to get a little rest, but could not. So down the river, reading “The Adventures of Five Houres,” which the more I read the more I admire. So down below Greenwich, but the wind and tide being against us, I back again to Deptford, and did a little business there, and thence walked to Redriffe; and so home, and to the office a while. In the evening comes W. Batelier and his sister, and my wife, and fair Mrs. Turner into the garden, and there we walked, and then with my Lady Pen and Pegg in a-doors, and eat and were merry, and so pretty late broke up, and to bed. The guns of the Tower going off, and there being bonefires also in the street for this late good successe.

22 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

The Royal Society today at Gresham College — from the Hooke Folio Online

Aug. 15. 1666./ The contriuance for the Expt. to shew tht the circular Pendul. was made of 2 straight lines crossing one another being fitted as was suggested the Last meeting. it appeard that the motion from the one end of the maior Diameter of the circular pendulum to the same and againe was equall to 2 vibrations of the streight Line pendulum equall in Length to the former & mouing in the same plaine

(lactescent plants for paints.) sandiuer a great reducer /of/ gold.) Kelp good for Land.) wallis baroscope - fals.) stone Wormes.)

Orderd that mr Hooke should be called on for perfecting his new quadrant of producing a new Sort of watch more Exact than a pendulum watch

of obseruing the Paralax of the earths orb. of presenting magnetick Expts. 1st for finding out whether grauitation be somewt magneticall, & there whether the magnet will attract at the same Distance in water as in air. as also whether the Liues of a Loadstones direction are truly ouall -

http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…

jeannine  •  Link

Holmes' Bonfire? (or a spoiler if I am off in my dates)

I am traveling and don't have the Ollard book on Holmes' life but I think that this is the famous fire called "Holmes' bonfire". I know if Pedro is around he can quote the details for you, but basically Holmes went in by 'stealth' and burned down a group of ships, causing a massive bonfire in the process.

Jesse  •  Link

Yes - Holmes’ Bonfire? See 11 Aug annotations.

Jesse  •  Link

"a renegado captain of the Hollanders"

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holm… "...the English had the advantage of being aided by a Dutch captain, Laurens Heemskerck, known to the English as "Lauris van Hamskirck", who in 1665 had fled to England after having been condemned to death for cowardice shown during the Battle of Lowestoft. Trying to ingratiate himself with his new masters, he had for some time been promoting a possible raid on this location."

Anent the above 'map in reality for the sailing problems', the wikipedia link also annotates a "Map of the Vlie area as it was in the 17th century; the present situation (viz. [sat]) is markedly different."

Ben  •  Link

The Fly - in Dutch Het Vlie

Mark Peaty [aka xodarap]  •  Link

To get the best out of the map of The Fly [Het Vlie or Vlieland]http://www.pepysdiary.co…
make sure to choose 'Satelite' view, to get a really good idea of what they were all up against.

Obviously much sand would have moved around in 350 years but presumably there was just as much of it in Pepys' time a-drifting about.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Faint praise indeed when compared to past encouragements...One can understand why Sam wasn't overjoyed by Sir William's comments. And of course Sam is a bit hypersensitive to such things.

"Not to worry Pepys. Anyone could have blown it during such a financial crisis."

That somehow doesn't sound as good as "You are the Life of this Office..." Sam thinks.

JWB  •  Link

"...sandiuer a great reducer /of/ gold.)"

Sandiver(sandever, gall of glass, anatron) is the scum atop the melt in making glass. Was used as flux for the removing impurities in metallurgy. Of course gold as found in nature is in it's reduced state chemically, here Hooke means reducing from mixture in ores. Searching online, I came across Sir Walter Raleigh's notes on his experiment reducing Guinea ore using sandever. Apart from writing "Hist. of the World" while imprisoned in the Tower, the onetime Lord of Stanneries (Welch tin mines) converted a hen house into a labratory in the garden outside his door to which he had access each day.

arby  •  Link

The man does love his commas, doesn't he?

Terry Foreman  •  Link

JWB, thanks for the sandever and Raleigh references.

Sir Walter's experiment that "had of the 12 graynes [of Guinea ore] a quarter of a grayn of gold" http://ur1.ca/9cv7

Pedro  •  Link

The Wikipedia account of the “Holmes Bonfire” is very detailed and much the same as the Ollard biography. Ollard will be useful when the consequences of the raid are being discussed.

It appears that Lauris van Hamskirck was subsequently knighted and given a command in the Navy.

Pedro  •  Link

Holmes Bonfire.

In his biography of De Ruyter, Blok gives very little mention of the details of the Bonfire, but says the anger of the mob even turned against De Ruyter, whose house in Amsterdam was in danger of being looted and destroyed.

However the English Fleet soon had to return to port for provisions and great haste was made to repair the damage, and soon the Dutch Fleet were ready again and more united than ever.

JWB  •  Link

Australian Susan: Right. I did know better, but stupid is as stupid does.

cgs  •  Link

"great haste was made to repair the damage, and soon the Dutch Fleet were ready again and more united than ever."

bigger the pain, greater the fight to kill it.
Action ALWAYS gets reaction.
Tis who has the stamina and the reserves wins.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"of obseruing the Paralax of the earths orb. of presenting magnetick Expts. 1st for finding out whether grauitation be somewt magneticall, & there whether the magnet will attract at the same Distance in water as in air. as also whether the Liues of a Loadstones direction are truly ouall -"

https://books.google.com/books?id…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Pepys is hungover!

I hope he remembered to asked Coventry how his situation was -- obviously James, Duke of York would have fired him if it was serious. But nevertheless, being accused of sharing information with the enemy is very uncomfortable

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"In the evening comes W. Batelier and his sister, and my wife, and fair Mrs. Turner into the garden, and there we walked, and then with my Lady Pen and Pegg in a-doors, and eat and were merry, and so pretty late broke up, and to bed."

Couldn't repeat last night's bash, Pepys? Another time he mentions the Penn ladies and not Elizabeth. But it's Mrs. Turner who is "fair" this time.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Jesse mentions "a renegado captain of the Hollanders" and how "... the English had the advantage of being aided by a Dutch captain, Laurens Heemskerck."

The Captain has a page in our Encyclopedia under the name Laurens van Heemskerck:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.