Camperdown legacy

“A Countdown contestant recently claimed that an Admiral Collingwood had ensured Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar and had never been recognised for it,” writes a Craigie regular.

“Collingwood had apparently taken command after Nelson was fatally wounded and had brought the battle to a successful conclusion.

“I don’t know about that, but there was a Dundonian who ought to have been given the credit for first using the tactic which Nelson employed so successfully at Trafalgar.

“He was Admiral Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan, who was born in Dundee in 1731 and whose father owned land at Lundie. He defeated the Dutch fleet off Camperdown in 1797. Anxious to prevent the Dutch admiral, De Winter, from retreating out of harm’s way, he divided his ships into two groups and sailed through the enemy lines, exactly the tactic for which Nelson got the credit for inventing at Trafalgar in 1805.

“Camperdown is considered one of the most significant actions in British naval history, but little has been said about Admiral Duncan being the first to break with the tradition of fighting naval battles in lines parallel to the enemy’s and firing broadsides at each other, before finally closing in to grapple and board. The Battle of Camperdown, hence Dundee’s Camperdown Park, with house and estate once owned by the Duncan family.

“For many years, I would show visitors the little hut in the park which contained the figurehead of the defeated Dutch Admiral’s ship. His name was de Winter.

“Vandals set it on fire some time ago. Where is it now? Was it restored? If not, it should have been or replaced with a replica, but in a safer place than that open-fronted hut protected only by iron railings.”