Dutch losses and a disciplined retreat

Darkness stopped the fighting at about seven o'clock. Maria had been captured, Gorkum was abandoned by its English captors in a sinking condition and recovered by the Dutch, and another Dutch ship had exploded. Several Dutch ships left formation, and ten Zeeland captains sailed home the next day after de With called them cowards and warned that Holland had enough wood for their gallows. The Dutch force fell to forty-nine ships while English reinforcements raised Blake's fleet from sixty-two to eighty-four. De With tried to sail south and regain the weather gauge before the withdrawal became a running fight. He and de Ruyter then covered the retreat with about a dozen ships and prevented further Dutch losses.