One of the only recorded instances in military history where cavalry captured a fleet of warships, achieved by exploiting frozen waters.
Key Facts
- Date
- 23 January 1795
- Dutch warships captured
- 14 ships
- French cavalry unit
- 8th Hussar Regiment
- French infantry unit
- Voltigeur company, 15th Line Infantry Regiment
- Dutch fleet commander
- Captain Hermanus Reintjes
- French army commander
- Jean-Charles Pichegru
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
During the French Revolutionary Wars and the War of the First Coalition, French forces under General Jean-Charles Pichegru invaded the Dutch Republic. An unusually severe winter froze the waters of the Nieuwediep near Den Helder, immobilizing a Dutch fleet of 14 warships at anchor and creating conditions that made a cavalry approach across the ice possible.
On the night of 23 January 1795, hussars of the French 8th Hussar Regiment, accompanied by infantry from the 15th Line Infantry Regiment, crossed the frozen Nieuwediep on horseback. The cavalry reached the stranded Dutch fleet and negotiated with Captain Hermanus Reintjes, securing the surrender of all 14 Dutch warships without significant armed resistance.
All 14 Dutch warships passed into French control, depriving the Dutch Republic of a substantial naval force at a critical moment of the French invasion. The event became notable as an extraordinary military curiosity—cavalry capturing a fleet—and remains one of the few documented examples of horsemen successfully taking warships in the history of naval and land warfare.