 the enemy, including Captain Wells of Lancaster. The worst criticism fell on Captain John Williamson of Agincourt. Agincourt had been barely engaged in the battle and had suffered not one single casualty. As a result, Williamson was accused of failing to do his duty by Captain Hopper of Agincourt's Royal Marines and court-martialled on 4 December 1797, at Sheerness aboard Circe, on the charges of "disobedience to signals and not going into action" and "cowardice and disaffection". Williamson had a history of indecisiveness: in 1779, while a junior officer on Captain James Cook's voyage to the Pacific Ocean, Williamson had prevaricated about bringing boats to evacuate Cook from Kealakekua Bay while under attack by Hawaiians. As a result, Cook was trapped on the beach and stabbed to death. At the conclusion of the trial on 1 January 1798, Williamson was found guilty of the first charge and not guilty of the latter, resulting in demotion to the bottom of the post captains list and prohibition from further naval service. Williamson was reported to have died in 1799, shortly after his dismissal from the service, but Edward Pelham Brenton later claimed that he had instead gone into hiding under an assumed name and continued to draw his pension for many years. In the Batavian Republic, there were also recriminations against those officers who were deemed to have failed in their duty: De Winter's despatch from London after the battle placed much of the blame with six ships that had failed to follow his orders and had withdrawn early from the battle. Several officers were brought up on charges, including Admiral Bloys van Treslong who was convicted at court-martial and dismissed the service although later reinstated, and Commander Souter of Batavier who was convicted and imprisoned. Admiral Story was also criticised, particularly by De Winter, and was only permitted to keep his command once he had satisfied the Batavian government that he had had no option but to retreat.
All of the captured Dutch ships were bought into the Royal Navy, Gleijkheid, Vrijheid, Wassenaar, Haarlem and Alkmaar under their own names (although in most cases they were anglicised) and Admiraal Tjerk Hiddes De Vries as the simpler Devries. Two were completely renamed, due to the prior existence of ships with their names in the Royal Navy; Jupiter became HMS Camperdown and Hercules became HMS Delft. None of these ships was ever in sufficient condition for service in open waters: the damage suffered at Camperdown proved too severe for them to be fully repaired. In addition, ships of Dutch construction had lighter hulls and flatter bottoms than ships of other nations as they were designed to operate off the shallow waters of the Dutch coast, and as a result they were of little use to the ocean-going Royal Navy. All the prizes were immediately relegated to harbour duty, and none were used for front-line service. Although the prize court took several years to determine the prize money that would be awarded for the battle, the initial estimates of £60,000 (the equivalent of £5,550,000 as of 2015) proved pessimistic: Duncan and his men were eventually awarded £150,000 (the equivalent of £13,874,000 as of 2015), although they were forced to defend a claim from the Russian Navy on behalf of the squadron that had reinforced Duncan in May. Since this force had played no part in the battle and had been considered a liability rather than a benefit by the British commanders, the claim was rejected, but legal fees and other claims reduced the eventual payment. Following the award of the first £10,000 instalment, Duncan was given the unique honour of permission to buy shares on the London Stock Exchange at ⅞ market price.
|"They say they are going to make a Lord of our Admiral. They can't make too much of him. He is a heart of oak; he is a seaman every inch of him, and as to a bit of a broadside, it only makes the old cock young again."|
|Anonymous sailor, October 1797|
Although Camperdown was considered the greatest ever victory for a British fleet over an equal enemy fo