Upon Charles II's return to England, Holmes was rewarded for his services with the captaincy of
Sandown Castle, Isle of Wight together with a new commission (for another guardship), this time from the
Duke of York himself, who had assumed the position of
Lord High Admiral. But more was in store for him.
The first African expedition The reports Rupert had brought back from the Gambia of a "Mountain of Gold" just waiting there to be carried off to England, prompted the Royal African Company, whose director was the Duke of York (and whose paperwork was carried out by
William Coventry) to launch an expedition to the Guinea Coast, then mostly in
Dutch hands. Holmes, acquainted with this coast, was the man for this venture, and was appointed captain of the flagship,
Henrietta and a squadron of four other of the King's ships:
Sophia,
Amity,
Griffin, and
Kinsale. His orders (drafted by Coventry) were to assist the company's factors in every way conceivable and to construct a fort. Privately, he was instructed to gather intelligence as to the expected "Mountain of Gold". The results of the expedition were ambiguous. Touching at
Gorée, Holmes bluntly informed the Dutch governor that the King of England claimed the exclusive right of trade and navigation between Cape Verde and the
Cape of Good Hope (which the King and
Sir George Downing disavowed after protests from the
States General and retaliatory action against English shipping). In addition to reconnoitring the coast and the mouth of the Gambia, Holmes constructed a fort there (on
Dog Island in the mouth of the river, renamed Charles Island). Up-river, on St. Andreas Island near
Jillifri, he then captured a fort which was nominally
the Duke of Courland's, but obviously in Dutch hands, and renamed the spit of land
James Island. Although the mission did not pay for the company, Holmes seems to have made a profit from it, since subsequently
Samuel Pepys, of all people, complained about Holmes's magnificent lifestyle (
Diary, 22 December 1661), and wondered whether the large
ape Holmes had brought back might be the offspring of a man and a she-baboon and susceptible to instruction (
Diary, 24 August 1661). The expedition was the turning point in Holmes's career. He had shown himself equal to dealing with Africans, company factors, the Dutch and his own men and officers alike, recommending himself as a prudent leader. He consequently was appointed captain of the
flagship, , which he lost quickly after having failed to force the
Swedish ambassador to
salute the
flag. But this was only a temporary setback, and he swiftly was granted £800 from
the Crown and the command of the newly launched
Reserve. The appointment of an inept master led to a quarrel with Pepys, which subsided after a while, but the antagonism between the administrator and the aggressive fighter was never resolved. Aboard
Reserve, Holmes tested a pair of
pendulum watches conceived by
Christiaan Huygens.
The second African expedition The objectives of the famous 1664 Guinea expedition are unclear. Although Holmes was charged with exceeding his orders by capturing Dutch forts and ships there, Coventry talks of a "game" that was to be started there, which can only mean an Anglo-Dutch war (Bath MSS. CII, ff. 3–13). Holmes's orders, again drafted by Coventry and signed by James, were to 'promote the Interests of the Royall Company' in HMS
Jersey and to 'kill, take, sink or destroy such as shall oppose you' (Bath MSS. XCV, ff.3-5) - especially the
Goulden Lyon of
Flushing, a
Dutch West India Company ship that had given the English a lot of trouble. The reason for the charges against Holmes was that his success exceeded even the most unreasonable expectations, and that he was, diplomatically, a convenient scapegoat (a fact of which he seems to have been aware). In sight of the Dutch base at Gorée he took the
West Indiaman Brill on 27 December 1663. Stirring up the Portuguese, Africans, and even such Dutch merchants as had a grudge against the WIC, he sank 2 ships and captured 2 others under the guns of Gorée (22 January 1664), and the next day took possession of the fort itself. On 28 March, in a tactically cunning action, he took
Goulden Lyon meanwhile named
Walcheren (taken into the
Royal Navy as a
fourth-rate). On 10 April, he captured Anta Castle on the
Gold Coast and several other small strongholds and ships. But the greatest coup was the capture of the principal Dutch base in West Africa,
Cape Coast Castle near
El Mina, on 1 May. Contrary to the popular picture, Holmes had no hand in the capture of
New Amsterdam. In August,
Michiel de Ruyter had clandestinely been sent to undo what Holmes had achieved. De Ruyter recaptured everything Holmes had conquered, except for Cape Coast Castle, which meant that after 1664, the English were on that coast to stay. His return to England was desultory, as he tried to make out the repercussions his actions had evoked in London. Since he commanded navy ships, everything he had taken was not automatically the company's property, but would have to be cleared by
Admiralty Courts to be prizes of Holmes and his men. Since Holmes's booty in merchandise was far behind the company's (unreasonable) expectations, he was twice committed to the
Tower (9 January and 14 February 1665), where he was interrogated by
secretaries of state Henry Bennet and
William Morrice. This situation was resolved by the Dutch declaration of 22 February that they would retaliate against British shipping, a direct consequence of the goings-on in Africa, that the British conveniently interpreted as a
declaration of war. ===
The Second Dutch War=== Barely a month after his release and full pardon, Holmes assumed command of , a
third-rate of 58 guns, the senior captain of Rupert's white (van)
squadron. When at the battle of
Lowestoft (3 June 1665) the
rear-admiral of the white,
Robert Sansum, was killed, Holmes claimed his post (which Rupert endorsed), but James gave the
flag to his own
flag captain, Harman. Holmes lost his temper and resigned his commission. Even worse, Holmes's rival
Sir Jeremiah Smith was promoted to flag rank. But reconciliation was, again, not far away. On 27 March 1666, the powerful new third-rate
Defiance (64) was launched in the presence of Charles II, James and Rupert, Holmes having been appointed captain and being knighted on the occasion. Part of the red squadron, Holmes was finally given acting flag-rank when the fleet was divided to shadow the Dutch and simultaneously intercept the French (which put him, satisfyingly, one step above Harman, rear-admiral of the white - a slighting of the principle of
seniority which would have been unthinkable at the end of the century). During the murderous
Four Days Battle, Holmes was reported to have "done wonders" (
CSP Dom., 7 June 1666), and was confirmed as rear-admiral of the red, his ship having received such a battering that he transferred his flag to the partially burnt and dismasted
Henry (72), Harman's ship, who had been wounded. But again, his rivals Sir Jeremiah Smith (made
admiral of the blue) and
Sir Edward Spragge (
vice-admiral of the blue) were promoted above him. These professional rivalries were a hallmark of the restoration navy, and Holmes used the conduct of the
St James' Day Fight, to start a bitter quarrel with Sir Jeremiah Smith, whose rear squadron had been routed by
Cornelis Tromp. The recriminations between the officers and their respective factions played a role in the subsequent Parliamentary investigation over embezzlement in the naval administration and the conduct of the war. On 9 August 1666, Holmes achieved his best-known feat, characteristically (and, to Pepys and Coventry, exasperatingly) using his own judgement in interpreting his orders. Holmes was to land five hundred men on the island of
Vlieland and four hundred on
Terschelling and loot and destroy as much as possible. Instead of this, Holmes executed a
fireship attack on the mass of merchantmen lying in
Vlie Road, destroying some 150 ships, and sacked the
Mennonite town of
West-Terschelling. This, ''
Holmes's Bonfire'', was the heaviest blow the English ever dealt Dutch merchant shipping, severely endangering the Netherlands' war effort, at the cost of no more than twelve English casualties. Holmes now was in high favour. Early in 1667 he was appointed to command a squadron based in
Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, a lucrative appointment that even enabled him to fit one of the squadron's prizes as a privateer. In April 1667, he was commissioned a captain in the
2nd Regiment of Foot Guards, which he resigned before 1670. As early as December 1666, Pepys had commented on Holmes's stubborn opposition to the laying-up of the fleet in expectation of peace. Holmes was alive to the danger of a Dutch assault - which duly came on 10 June 1667, when Michiel de Ruyter during the
Raid on the Medway entered the
Medway, burned a large part of the fleet in ordinary (i.e. laid up) at
Chatham and hijacked
Royal Charles. After that year's campaign had ended, Parliament's interest in naval administration intensified, much to Pepys's and Coventry's distress. Rupert and Albemarle, like most naval officers, especially of the
Cavalier and
gentleman sort, had long been unhappy with the off-hand treatment they received from the administrators. These, in turn, found the officers arrogant and unruly. Now the commanders-in-chief and their clients,
Sir Frescheville Holles, Holmes and others, might strike back, especially after the Medway disaster. In addition, Holmes, in the winter of 1666/1667, had revived the quarrel with Sir Jeremiah Smith (possibly even fighting a duel with him), which only ended when the latter took
Sir William Penn's place on the
Navy Board (which again Holmes had hoped would be his) in December 1668. After peace was concluded, Holmes intensified his hold in the Isle of Wight by buying the governorship from
Lord Colepeper. This put him in responsibility of the defences there (
Sandown,
Carisbrooke and
Yarmouth Castles), but also gave him access to the very lucrative
vice-admiralty of the Isle of Wight, Newport and Hampshire, with two-thirds of the value of all prizes taken there due to him. In addition, in October 1669, he was elected
member of parliament for
Winchester, generally supporting the Crown in Parliament. ===
The Third Dutch War=== , 12 March 1672|201x201px Among the preparations for provoking the Dutch into yet another war, was the appointment of Holmes as senior officer in Portsmouth, commanding a powerful squadron and the flagship
St Michael, a
first-rate of 90 guns. Holmes immediately pressed for the capture of a large number of Dutch ships, using English harbours under foreign colours; but the government procrastinated until the opportunity was gone. On 23 March 1672, he finally got permission to attack the homeward-bound Dutch
Smyrna convoy. For two days, the English squadron fought a veritable battle with the armed merchantmen and their escorts, suffering damage out of proportion to their gains, half a dozen prizes only one of which seems to have been one of the rich Smyrna ships. Accidentally, Sir Edward Spragge's squadron, returning from the Mediterranean, had passed the scene immediately before the engagement. For unknown reasons, Spragge did not join the attack nor was invited by Holmes to do so, which gave rise to new mutual suspicions. A few days after the fight war was declared and flags handed out. Holmes did not receive one, which may have had to do with the limited number of posts available due to the white squadron this time consisting of the French fleet. Accordingly, Holmes fought in the ensuing
Battle of Solebay as a mere captain in the Duke of York's squadron. The battle, the fiercest in De Ruyter's memory, claimed the lives of Holmes's friends Holles and
Sandwich, and forced the
Lord High Admiral to transfer his flag twice, from
Prince to Holmes's
St Michael and from that to
London. With Sandwich dead, a new flag officer had to be appointed, but Holmes's legitimate claims were again disregarded - for the last time. After the end of the 1672 campaign, Holmes did not get another command, notwithstanding the constant intercession on his behalf of the new commander-in-chief, his stout friend Prince Rupert. Obviously, the King himself had no desire to re-employ him. Holmes's naval career had very abruptly ended. ==Life in "retirement"==