On Friday January 24th a team of intrepid NWS members gathered at the home of chairman Stuart Barnes Watson for the start of an expedition to deepest Holland. The task - to seek out the Dutch at Camperdown and recreate the Royal navy’s famous victory of 200 years ago! To backtrack a little, I was contacted by Dutch wargamer Vincent van Deventer last year with a view to organising a 200th anniversary refight of Camperdown on the 11th October. The original plan was to hold the game at the National Maritime Museum, but their reconstruction plans forced a cancellation. The game was rearranged for the Rotterdam Maritime Museum, but again problems with the venue meant that we were put off. Eventually at the third attempt a firm arrangement was made for the 25th January. Unfortunately this put us a year out from our original plan (1998 rather than 1997). A few weeks of frantic phone calls around the country pulled together a team of eight: myself, Rod Langton (handy, since we were using his rules), our chairman Stuart Barnes Watson, NWS secretary Andy Jose, Dave Willcocks of Dreadnought Model, London wargamers Mark Russell and Ben Hutchings and naval competition gamer Mike Parsons (made an honorary NWS member for the trip).

Our first obstacle was the ferry. We were due to travel by Seacat from Ramsgate, leaving at 16:00 for a 1½ hour crossing - except that when we arrived we were told the ‘cat was not too well - engine trouble and a severely restricted top speed meant we would be 2 hours late departing and would now face a 3 hour crossing. Our intended 21:00 arrival in Amsterdam turned into an 01:00 arrival on Saturday morning, and this combined with sleep deprivation and our rather inadequate maps meant it took us an hour to find our houseboat (most suitable and comfortable accommodation arranged by Stuart, who also dealt admirably with the ferry details). Anyway, by 04:00 we were all safely ticked up in bed, although we were somewhat mystified with Ben’s activities involving a certain young (?) lady named ‘Almond’…..

Rod, Andy and I awoke at 08:00 next morning and went for a walk to clear our heads, only to find that the cars had been towed away - the parking area next to the houseboat turned out to be a lorry loading bay - cue two £100 fines! At least that solved our parking problems for the day as we sought out Amsterdam’s splendid maritime museum. This is the home of a truly amazing book shop. Whilst the general public see a selection of the books on offer, the true enthusiast can ask to see the stock room which is an Aladdin’s cave of maritime paperwork. Several rare finds were had (mostly by Stuart) and Rod nearly succumbed to a set of 19th century ships plans for a mere 2,500 guilders! After this we headed into town to root out more bookshops (of which Amsterdam is well blessed), followed by a return to the houseboat for a run through of the rules for those unfamiliar with ‘Signal Close Action’. That night saw us in town again for a spot of window shopping, during which Stuart and Ben went AWOL - lurid tales of bananas and blondes ensued…..

Sunday, and at last the big day. We left early, breakfasted outside the port, then entered Rotterdam and made contact with our Dutch opposite numbers. Frostbite and the chill wind almost claimed a few fingers but by 10: 00 we were in the museum and setting up. The ‘Prins Hendrik’ Museum is a truly splendid venue for a wargame display. The battle was fought out on a large table (about 5 metres by 3) in the foyer, in the midst of Dutch naval relics and exhibits, including some artefacts recovered from the Dutch warship ‘Delft’ (sunk at the real battle) - you couldn’t hope for a better back drop. Outside the museum resides the 19th century turret-ram ‘Buffel’ (one of only three such vessels still in existence - one of the others is also in Holland, the third, Huascar, is in Chile). She has been extensively renovated and is in a fabulous condition. The only poor point was the gutting of the turret to provide an access to the lower decks, but for the engineers amongst us the engine room was a spectacular display. Meanwhile, inside the museum a stage was erected for spectators and soon a crowd of expectant visitors gathered to watch the fight.

Rod and I were detailed onto the Umpiring staff with Vincent. Stuart and Mark took command of the trailing Dutch squadrons, whilst the rest of the UK players formed part of the RN command. Despite a few false starts and some friendly ‘debate’ over the initial setup the game was soon underway. In the end it all turned out pretty much like the real thing. The RN approached in two ragged lines, one led by the character of Admiral Duncan, one by his subordinate, Onslow. The Dutch line was engaged at its head and about 1/3 from the leading ship. The decisive break of the Dutch line occurred at the vanguard, with the British breaking through between the first and second Dutch ships of the line. A lively close action ensued which saw these two Dutch ships captured and three more forced to strike their colours and surrender by the time we were forced to end the game; at least one Dutch frigate was about to get a roughing as she was accidentally rammed by a British ’74, but her fate was avoided by the closing of the museum. Having forced another famous victory we and our Dutch friends retired to a local Indonesian restaurant for an excellent post game meal, during which every wargaming campaign was apparently re-run in great detail!

That was not the end of the story - the return to our houseboat was as successful as our initial arrival in Amsterdam (despite having been there once we still couldn’t get there without travelling right around the city at least once). Another expedition was mounted to the bright lights, but this was an altogether more low key affair, ending with a game of cards in a pub, looked on by several bemused locals. The return to UK was as smooth as the trip out - the ferry was still grinding away on 1/3 power (only in the daylight you could see the smoke pouring out of her crippled engines - we only made 24 knots on the way back, instead of her designed 40+). The delay meant we had the chance for a meal in Ostend (plus a raid on the local book and model shops, most of which were shut). We returned to Reading to break up and depart for home; as a postscript, Rod arrived at Reading Station only to find the last train to Truro had left 2 hours before - he had to suffer a five hour wait until the night train arrived, but when last heard from he had made it home safely!!

The event was a great success, both for ourselves and the Dutch wargames clubs involved. We managed a successful recruiting drive, with several new members leaving the game with their ‘Battlefleets’ - NWS embers can expect an influx of articles in our journal with a Dutch flavour over the next few years! Not only that, but we are now exchanging articles and ideas with the Murphy’s Heroes and Causus Beli wargames clubs in Nijmegen and Delft via their magazine editor Marleen Overkamp via the joys of e-mail, your author (and NWS journal editor) and the lovely Marleen having discovered a common interest in Napoleonic ships, creating wargames magazines, and cats! We all formed new and hopefully lasting friendships with our Dutch allies and adversaries - we hope to see them again soon.