about three o'clock
`` It was a good thing that Deane and Monk were on board the same ship . If it had not been so , Deane 's flag would have been hauled down and all the Fleet would have known of his death , which , at the commencement of the fight , would have greatly discouraged the men . `` They told me , though I know naught about it , that Rear-Admiral Lawson charged with the Blue Squadron right through the Dutch line , and so threw them into confusion . However , about three o'clock , the fight having begun at eleven , Van Tromp began to draw off , and we got more sail on the _ Resolution _ and followed them for some hours , they making a sort of running fight of it , till one of their big ships blew up , about nine in the evening , when they laid in for shore . Blake came up in the night with eighteen ships . The Dutch tried to draw off , but at eight o'clock we came up to them , and , after fighting for four hours , they hauled off and ran , in great confusion , for the flats , where we could not follow them , and so they escaped to Zeeland . We heard that they had six of their best ships sunk , two blown up and eleven taken , but whether it was so or not I knew not , for , in truth , I saw nothing whatever of the matter .