In the severe winter of 1794–1795 the ships of the Dutch Navy at the roadstead of Hellevoetsluis became frozen in the ice on the Meuse river.

Commander-in-chief of the Dutch Navy, Lieutenant Admiral Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen ordered Story to offer no resistance.

During this battle, Story commanded the Batavian frigate division as rear-admiral aboard the 74-gun ship-of-the-line Staaten Generaal.

This ship caught fire, and while this was extinguished, it drifted to leeward, which made it impossible to rejoin the battle.

However, strong rumours of a planned Anglo-Russian attack on the Republic in summer 1799 led to the cancellation of this expedition.

The machinations of a number of officers in his command with Orangist leanings led to the debacle of the Vlieter incident in which Story felt constrained to surrender without a fight to the Royal Navy squadron under Admiral Andrew Mitchell because of a mutiny aboard the Batavian squadron.

The Hoge Militaire Vierschaar ("High Military Court") convicted him on 16 January 1804, of dereliction of duty, cowardice, and disloyalty.

He was declared to be "perjurious, without honor, and infamous,"[This quote needs a citation] cashiered from the navy, and sentenced to banishment for life, on penalty of beheading.