Battle of Dogger Bank 1781

[Berthier]

A favourite site for naval battles the 1781 battle although of no strategic importance pitted two roughly equal forces (7SOL each) of Br6itish and Dutch ships in a spirited action. The Dutch lost one ship but claimed victory, the British ships suffered due to lack of maintenance the Dutch from being blockaded for some time. Casualties were relatively high on both sides.

This on paper would appear to be an excellent battle for competition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...ank_%281781%29

[csadn]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...ank_%281781%29

Note how much smaller the "ships of the line" being used are -- at the time, Britain had removed all sub-64-gun ships from the line, save for those being used in the Baltic and along the Dutch coast.

Given the failure of the Dutch merchantmen to leave Holland, I'd be inclined to say the British won this one; however, in light of other events:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown , it was "too little, too late".