Raid on Griessie

Raid on Griessie
Part of the Napoleonic Wars
Map of Java, with Griessie marked.
Date 5–11 December 1807 Location Griessie, Java, Dutch East Indies 7°08′17″S 112°39′10″E / 7.13806°S 112.65278°E / -7.13806; 112.65278 Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Holland
Commanders and leaders
Edward Pellew	Captain Cowell
Strength
2 ships of the line 2 frigates 4 smaller warships	3 ships of the line 1 shore battery
Casualties and losses
None	3 ships of the line scuttled 1 shore battery destroyed

The Raid on Griessie was a British attack on the Dutch port of Griessie (later renamed Gresik) on Java in the Dutch East Indies in December 1807 during the Napoleonic Wars. The raid was the final action in a series of engagements fought by the British squadron based in the Indian Ocean against the Dutch naval forces in Java. It completed the destruction of the Dutch squadron with the scuttling of three ships of the line, the last Dutch warships in the region. The British squadron—under the command of Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew—sought to eliminate the Dutch to safeguard the trade route with China, which ran through the Straits of Malacca and were in the range of Dutch raiders operating from the principal Javan port of Batavia. In the summer of 1806, British frigates reconnoitred Javan waters and captured two Dutch frigates, encouraging Pellew to lead a major attack on Batavia that destroyed the last Dutch frigate and several smaller warships. Before the Batavia raid, however, Dutch Rear-Admiral Hartsinck had ordered his ships of the line to sail eastwards, where they took shelter at Griessie, near Sourabaya.

On the morning of 5 December 1807, a second raiding squadron under Pellew appeared off Griessie and demanded that the Dutch squadron in the harbour surrender. The Dutch commander—Captain Cowell—refused and seized the boat party carrying the message. Pellew responded by advancing up the river and exchanging fire with a Dutch gun battery on Madura Island. At that point, the governor in Surabaya overruled Captain Cowell, released the seized boat party, and agreed to surrender the ships at anchor in Gresik harbour. However, by the time Pellew reached the anchorage, Cowell had scuttled all the ships in shallow water, and Pellew could only set the wreckage on fire. Landing shore parties, the British destroyed all military supplies in the town and demolished the battery on Madura. With the destruction of the force in Griessie, the last of the Dutch naval forces in the Pacific were eliminated. British forces returned to the region in 1810 with a large-scale expeditionary force that successfully invaded and captured Java in 1811, temporarily removing the last Dutch colony east of Africa.