Editing Four Days' Battle (section)

===Third day===
[[File:De verovering van de Royal Prince Rijksmuseum SK-A-438.jpeg|thumb|Surrender of the ''Prince Royal'']]
[[File:The surrender of the Royal Prince during the Four Days' Battle, by Willem van de Velde the Younger.jpg|thumb|right|Surrender of the ''Prince Royal'']]
A light breeze from the northeast replaced the overnight calm before sunrise, and the English fleet decided to continue its retreat, steering slightly north of west. Van Nes called a council of war, as de Ruyter was still far astern: this agreed to pursue the English fleet in line abreast and with the intention of engaging and overwhelming the English fleet, although it remained out of reach through the morning.<ref>Van Foreest and Weber, p. 17</ref> By midday the wind strengthened and became easterly, so the fastest Dutch ships were released to try to overtake the English fleet.<ref>Fox,  p. 236</ref> However, as the 15 ships of the English rearguard were all large and powerful, each with several large guns (32-pounder cannon) mounted in their sterns, whereas even the largest Dutch ships had only two medium-calibre guns that could fire forward, the English fleet was able to keep the Dutch ships at a distance, and continued on their way without difficulty.<ref>Fox,  pp. 236-8</ref>

Shortly before 3pm, Rupert's squadron was sighted to the southwest by the leading English ships, heading north. When van Nes saw this, he tried to bring Albemarle's ships into action before Rupert's squadron could reinforce his fleet. Albemarle's pilots assumed that both his fleet and Rupert's squadron were already north of the Galloper Sand and, at about 5pm, they steered to the west to join Rupert. The leading English ships were small, and their shallow draught allowed them to pass over the Galloper Sand without difficulty, but {{HMS|Royal Charles||6}}, {{HMS|Royal Katherine|1664|6}} and {{HMS|Prince Royal|1660|6}} grounded on the sandbank. The first two managed to get free quickly, but the larger ''Prince Royal'', flagship of the white squadron, was stuck fast.<ref>Fox,  pp. 238-9</ref> It was soon surrounded by several Dutch ships, including two fireships. Vice-Admiral [[George Ayscue]] wished to resist any Dutch attack and begged his men to stay calm and repulse the approaching fireships. However, the crew panicked and a certain Lambeth struck the flag, forcing Ayscue to surrender to Tromp on the ''Gouda'', the only time in history an English admiral of so high a rank was captured at sea.<ref>Fox,  pp. 239-40</ref> Tromp wished to keep the ''Prince Royal'' as a prize, and when de Ruyter finally caught up with his fleet at about 7pm, he initially raised no objection. However, when it floated as the tide rose, its rudder and steering were found to be damaged so it could not steer itself. As the recombined English fleet was preparing to attack, de Ruyter ordered the ''Prince Royal'' to be burned at once, as it was possible that an attempt would be made to recapture it.<ref>Fox, pp. 239-40</ref> De Ruyter had explicit written instructions from the States-General to burn prizes in such situations. Tromp did not dare to make any objections because he had already sent home some prizes against orders; but later he would freely express his discontent, still trying to get compensation for the loss of this valuable prize in 1681.

After Rupert had left the main fleet on 29 May, Albemarle received information that a Dutch fleet which significantly outnumbered his had left its ports and was at sea. When this was passed to the king and his advisers, they sent Rupert an order for his squadron to return on 31 May: this reached him off the [[Isle of Wight]] on 1 June. His squadron reached Dover on 2 June but was delayed by light winds and adverse tides until the next morning.<ref>Fox,  pp. 163-4,-166</ref>

Albemarle had only 27 ships remaining after the loss of the ''Prince Royal'' and sending six badly damaged ships to port. Rupert brought 26 ships, the 20 he had on 29 May together with ''Kent'' and ''Hampshire'' which had been detached from the fleet before 29 May and four fireships. Three more ships from the Thames, the ''Convertine'', ''Sancta Maria'' and ''Centurion'' also joined the fleet at the same time as Rupert. The English fleet therefore consisted of 52 warships, nearly half of them undamaged and with full crews, and six fireships facing some 69 Dutch warships, 57 major ones and the rest frigates, and six or seven fireships.<ref>Fox, p. 248</ref><ref>Van Foreest and Weber, p. 18</ref>

Soon after Rupert's arrival, Albemarle convened a council of war which agreed to resume the battle in the following day, despite being weaker than the Dutch.<ref>Fox, p. 248</ref> Realising this, de Ruyter, who had resumed command from van Nes took his fleet eastward to make repairs and prepare for a fourth day of combat.<ref>Fox, p. 248</ref> De Ruyter considered that, despite the casualties suffered by many of his ships and shortages of ammunition, his superiority in numbers could still be decisive.<ref>Van Foreest and Weber, p. 18</ref>

Albemarle and Rupert reorganised the English fleet. Rupert's squadron of undamaged fast ships with fresh crews took the van as the new white squadron under his own command, with Sir [[Christopher Myngs]] and Sir [[Edward Spragge]] as his vice-admiral and rear-admiral. Sir [[Robert Holmes (Royal Navy officer)|Robert Holmes]] replaced the captured Ayscue in charge of the remains of the former white squadron, now consisting of between eight and ten of its original twenty ships. Holmes' ships probably formed part of the centre under Albemarle, although its exact position is unclear, and a reduced blue squadron under [[Thomas Teddiman]], its vice-admiral, commanding in the absence of its admiral formed the rear.<ref>Fox,  pp. 248-9</ref> Like the Dutch, the English fleet spent much of the evening and night repairing damage as far as possible.<ref>Fox, p. 250</ref>