Beachy Head

Beachy Head, a promontory 564 ft. high on the coast of Sussex, overlooking the English Channel. Below it, on June 30th, 1690, the allied English and Dutch fleets, under Herbert, Earl of Torrington, and Evertsen, consisting of fifty-six sail, met the French fleet under De Tourville, consisting of seventy-eight sail and twenty-two fire-ships. Torrington, in pursuance of peremptory orders from the court, but against his better judgment, accepted battle, and was worsted, though not decisively. The English lost two, and the Dutch six ships. Torrington was tried for cowardice and treachery, and although he was triumphantly acquitted was deprived of his commission by the king, who sought thus to appease his Dutch subjects.