Capture of Banda Neira

Fort Belgica in 1824

August 9th, 1810. Captain C. Cole, with the HMS Caroline thirty-six, HMS Piedmontaise, thirty-eight. Captain Foote and the HMS Barracouta, eighteen. Captain Kenah, having on board about one hundred men of the Madras European Regiment, in May, 1810, sailed from Madras with supplies for Amboyna, recently captured by the British. On his arrival at Penang, Captain Cole determined to attempt the reduction of the strongly fortified island of Banda Neira, the seat of the Dutch Government in the Moluccas, and considered to be impregnable. After an intricate and dangerous navigation of almost unknown seas, on the 8th of August he brought to in sight of the Island, and was fired upon by a battery on an outlying islet, which destroyed all hope of taking the place by surprise. About eleven at night, nearly four hundred officers and men under the command of Captain Cole, pushed off in the boats for Banda, but owing to the darkness of the night and violent squalls of wind and rain, at two in the morning he found himself at the appointed landing place with less than two hundred men. The violence of the storm covered his landing within a hundred yards of a battery of ten guns, which was entered from the rear and carried by Capt. Kenah, without firing a shot. Leaving a small guard at the captured battery, Cole pushed on towards Fort Belgica, the citadel, which commanded almost the whole of the island, placed his ladders against the outer walls, carried them, and hauling up the ladders, placed them against the inner wall, but found they were too short.

Fort Nassau in 1646

The enemy opened fire from the ramparts, but the gate being then opened to admit the Dutch Commandant, a rush was made for the gateway; the Commandant who refused quarter, fell, with several of his men, and the British colours were hoisted over the place. At day-break Capt. Kenah was sent to the governor with a flag of truce, demanding the immediate surrender of the island. The British frigates were entering the harbour, and on a second summons, with a threat of reducing the town to ashes, and a shot fired from Belgica into the sea batteries, the island and its dependencies were unconditionally surrendered, and fifteen hundred regular troops and militia laid down their arms. In this brilliant and most successful exploit the victors did not lose a single man, and but few were wounded. The island of Banda is about two and a half miles long, and half a mile in breadth. Besides the forts of Belgica and Nassau, it was defended by ten batteries, mounting altogether one hundred and thirty-eight guns. The Dutch looked on the place as impregnable, and by its capture a large amount of treasure fell into the hands of the British.