The Royal Adventurers of Africa aggressively expands operations in West Africa to challenge Dutch regional domination

As Lord High Admiral of the Royal Navy, James, Duke of York, lends warships to the Royal Adventurers of Africa (which he governed) and orders Captain Robert Holmes to use this fleet to kill, sink, or destroy any opponents in West Africa. He was particularly focused onthe Dutch West India Company for their interference with the Royal Adventurers of Africa’s Gold Coast trade, especially at its Cape Coast outpost. After capturing Dutch ships and the West India Company’s fort in Goree, Senegal, Holmes sacks the Dutch fort in Takoradi and besieges Fort Carolusburg at Cape Coast, which the Dutch had only recently themselves captured from the Swedes. Continuous bombardment between April 29 and May 11 caused the West India Company garrison to mutiny and surrender, whereupon Holmes then staffed the fort with fifty men and immediately began repairing it.