On October 11th 1797, Admiral Duncan's North Sea Fleet of 18 vessels trounced the Dutch fleet of 23 warships at Camperdown.

The 64 gun Ardent under Captain Richard Burgess was the first to engage the enemy flagship the Vrijheid. After 3 hours of ferocious fighting the Captain of the Ardent lay dead, together with 40 of his crew. A further 96 had been dreadfully mangled by the Vrijheid's broadsides.

One of the survivors of the Ardent was a 22 year old Able Seaman by the name of David Gray. When the Ardent put into Chatham 3 months later, Gray deserted and fled to South shields where he joined a whaler. This was the start of Captain David Gray's illustrious career as a whaler and also of a great Peterhead whaling dynasty.

©SCRAN/Dundee City Council Defeat of the Dutch Fleet by J W Edy .

The engraving concentrates on the two flagships - the Venerable and the Vrijheid - in the midst of battle. The Vrijheid is badly damaged and close to surrendering and the Hercules alongside her is burning. The time of battle is about 3pm. All the ships depicted are named from left to right; Gelykheid, Monarch, Wassenaar, Jupiter, Russel, Harlem, Powerful, Venerable, Vrijheid, Hercules, Cerberus, Ardent, Batavier, Brutus, Leyden, Belliqueux.

Admiral Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan of Camperdown, came from a family of pro-Hanoverian Scots. His father, a local landowner, was Provost of Dundee before and after the Rising of 1745 and the next generation all pursued careers in the service of the crown.

He served under Admiral Keppel off Africa and the West Indies in his twenties and thirties, and, recalled to active service in 1778, saw action with Admirals Rodney and Howe. During peacetime he lived as an Edinburgh gentleman and made a useful marriage to Henrietta Dundas whose uncle became Pitt's secretary of state for war in 1794.

Until 1796 Duncan's career was worthy rather than remarkable, but during his last posting, he emerged, spectacularly, as one of Britain's great naval heroes. To counter the threat of aggression from the newly created Dutch Republic during the war against France, a North Sea fleet had been formed with Duncan at its command. After successfully blockading the Dutch fleet he led his ships to victory off the Dutch coast on 11 October 1797. This victory was significant both practically - the threat of a French invasion now faded - and symbolically, as a huge morale boost after years of inconclusive engagements and domestic discontent. It also marked the end of the Dutch Greenland whaling industry.

©SCRAN/National galleries of Scotland Admiral Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan of Camperdown.