Originally Posted by cdo_gunner

Not mention raiding along the South Coast. I know the frogs 'invaded' the Isle of wight, laid siege to Carisbrooke Castle and IIRC torched Yarmouth at least once.

On a related note, was watching Dan Snow's new Empire of the Seas and was surprised to learn that Barbary pirates raided england for slaves in the 17th century.

Have you been to Yarmouth? Can't really blame the Jean Crapauds.

Originally Posted by Cuddles

Originally Posted by cdo_gunner

Not mention raiding along the South Coast. I know the frogs 'invaded' the Isle of wight, laid siege to Carisbrooke Castle and IIRC torched Yarmouth at least once.

On a related note, was watching Dan Snow's new Empire of the Seas and was surprised to learn that Barbary pirates raided england for slaves in the 17th century.

Have you been to Yarmouth? Can't really blame the Jean Crapauds.

It's such a shame they didn't make it as far as Bradford....

Originally Posted by jonwilly

I was extracting the urine from a visiting Dutch tourist the other day and he suddenly says '1689 when we sail up the Thames and took England'.
I assume they teach history different to how we do.
john

De Ruyter sailed up the Thames, attacked the RN fleet successfully with fireships, captured a number of British ships which he used to bombard defensive forts and blockaded London. Caused a more balanced renegociation of the peace terms at the end of the 2nd Anglo-Dutch war.

Originally Posted by Croque_Monsieur

Originally Posted by jonwilly

I was extracting the urine from a visiting Dutch tourist the other day and he suddenly says '1689 when we sail up the Thames and took England'.
I assume they teach history different to how we do.
john

De Ruyter sailed up the Thames, attacked the RN fleet successfully with fireships, captured a number of British ships which he used to bombard defensive forts and blockaded London. Caused a more balanced renegociation of the peace terms at the end of the 2nd Anglo-Dutch war.

Frogs also trashed Portsmouth a couple of times in the 12th century or so.

Originally Posted by seaweed

Frogs also trashed Portsmouth a couple of times in the 12th century or so.

And when the Mary Rose sank in 1545 they almost did again

Spanish had over 4,000 troops based in Kinsale, southern Ireland, for 3 months in the early 1600's, while attempting to help the Irish kick out crown forces...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Kinsale

... and then use Ireland as a launch pad to Britain.

Originally Posted by spoiltb

On a related note, was watching Dan Snow's new Empire of the Seas and was surprised to learn that Barbary pirates raided england for slaves in the 17th century.

I hope an apology is forthcoming for that historical indiscretion

The Barbary Corsairs, sometimes called Ottoman Corsairs or Barbary Pirates, were Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa from the time of the Crusades (11th century) until the early 19th century. Based in North African ports such as Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers, Salé, and other ports in Morocco, they sailed mainly along the stretch of northern Africa known as the Barbary Coast. Their predation extended throughout the Mediterranean, south along West Africa's Atlantic seaboard, and into the North Atlantic as far north as Iceland, and they primarily commandeered western European ships in the western Mediterranean Sea. In addition, they engaged in Razzias, raids on European coastal towns, to capture Christian slaves to sell at slave markets in places such as Algeria and Morocco.

Pirates destroyed thousands of French, Spanish, Italian and English ships, and long stretches of coast in Spain and Italy were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants, discouraging settlement until the 19th century. From the 16th to 19th century, pirates captured an estimated 800,000 to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves, mainly from seaside villages in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, but also from France, England, the Netherlands, Ireland and as far away as Iceland and North America.

Originally Posted by spoiltb

On a related note, was watching Dan Snow's new Empire of the Seas and was surprised to learn that Barbary pirates raided england for slaves in the 17th century.

I hope an apology is forthcoming for that historical indiscretion

Saw that! Also featured in the BBC's 'Coast'. In one famous raid they took over 100 English settlers from Baltimore, south coast of Ireland. That was almost every one of the towns people.

From Wikipedia:
The Sack of Baltimore took place on June 20, 1631, when the village of Baltimore, West Cork, Ireland, was attacked by Algerian pirates from the North African Barbary Coast, led by a Dutch captain turned pirate, Jan Janszoon van Haarlem, also known as Murat Reis the Younger. Murat's force was led to the village by a man called Hackett, the captain of a fishing boat he had captured earlier, in exchange for his freedom (it brought Hackett no luck, as he was later hanged for his part in aiding the raiders). The raid was one of Murat Reis' many profitable adventures against European communities.

Murat's crew was made up of Dutchmen, Algerians and Ottoman Turks. They launched their covert attack on the remote village on June 20th 1631, capturing 108 English planters and local Irish people, but not much in terms of valuable treasure. Almost all of the villagers were put in irons and taken to a life of slavery in North Africa. Some prisoners were destined to live out their days as galley slaves in the bellies of pirate ships, while others would spend long years in the seclusion of the Sultan's harem or within the walls of the Sultan's palace as laborers. Only two of them ever saw Ireland again.[cite this quote]

The incident inspired Thomas Osborne Davis to write his famous poem, The Sack of Baltimore. A detailed account of the sack of Baltimore can be found in the book The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates by Des Ekin.

And then of there are the two American attacks by John Paul Jones at Whitehaven and St Mary's Isle. And the fight against the Drake in Carrikfergus harbour