Armada Embarks

Sailing to do war with England

This Naval History is a continuation on from: "Armada Ahead"

Over the years a great many stories have been written about the Spanish Armada; all seeing it from a different stance, with varying opinions. In my story, looking at the basic facts I'm hoping you will find this an interesting version of that unparralelled Enterprize.

The last cask was stowed and the last conscript got on board everything was set in place. On setting off on the morning of 9th May the ships began dropping down past Belem, on the River Targus, but just inside the bar they had to cast anchor and wait.

The wind came howling off the Atlantic, blowing right down the throat of the passage the ships intended sailing. It was such a powerful storm that it would have caused major damage at sea. It continued to blow one gale after another; it was more like December than May.

The Armada lay for almost three weeks anchored off Belem, and then the storm broke. The Armada was as ready as it would ever be, everything that was in the realms of possibility had been done. The fleet had been organised according to its fighting and sailing capabilities.

The first line the galleons were in two strong squadrons. The ten Portuguese were the biggest and well armed. The other ten galleons of Castile were somewhat smaller and less well armed. These two squadrons were intended to act together, also rated in the first line were the four galleasses of Naples.

They were a kind of hybrid warship, half galleon and half galley, fast, heavily gunned and capable of manoeuvring with oars; great things were expected of them. The second line was composed of four squadrons of ten ships each, large merchantmen, some heavily armed.

There were also thirty-four light, fast ships, for scouting and dispatch-carrying, some of them attached to one or another of the fighting squadrons; but one group kept together with a small galleon as their flagship, to act as a screen.

Finally there was an unwieldy squadron of twenty-three 'hulks', freighters and supply ships, very few of which could be expected to look after themselves in any kind of fight, and four of the galleys of Portugal brought along at the last minute for reasons which remain to this day obscure.

All in all one hundred and thirty sailing ship, great and small.

Armada Ahead

Medina Sidonia drew up an elaborate report

He detailed not just the order of battle by squadrons but the name of each ship in every squadron, its estimated tonnage, the number of its guns, its sailors, its soldiers. For good measure he added the principal gentlemen-adventurers on each ship, listed by name with the number of their combatant servants, also the gunners, the medical corps, there were one-hundred and eighty friars and priests.

The soldiers units, with a list of their officers and the strength of every company, the field guns, the small arms of all kinds, the total supply of powder and the type. The total number of cannon balls of all weights were 123,790, the lead for bullets, the matches.

The report also listed provisions, buistcuits, bacon, fish, cheese, rice, beans, wine, oil, vinegar, water, in so many thousands or tens of thousands of hundredweights, or in so many pipes and tuns and casks. Even if the figures are not all accurate, the quantity of detailed information is greater than we have about any other fleet of the sixteenth century.

All-in-all, it still looks in the pages of description like a very formidable force. It seems odd that such a detailed report should have been published in those days. Today such a document would be classified 'Top Secret' until long after its last item was well known by the enemy.

But published it was in Madrid. And only ten days after it was drawn up. Some printers added to the lists pikes, and corslets, whips and chains, gridirons and pincers, racks and thumbscrews, etc.

Perhaps what counted most was that the fleet was ready at last to meet the enemy, its new built fighting castles glistening with fresh paint, its banners snapping from the mast-heads, its decks thronged with handsom cavaliers. Everything looked gay and gallant and altogether invincible.

A change for better weather

As soon as the weather had moderated enough to make it feasable, the Armada eased out of the Lisbon river, it was 28th May. With the flagship in the lead, the royal galleons of Portugal passed Castle St. Julian, replying in turn to the fort's salutes.

By 30th May, the whole Armada was standing out at sea. The fleet would be south of Cape Espichel before it had room for a new tack.

The fleet did keep together, but as its commander soon realized, they were governed by the speed of the slowest vessel. By 1st June, they had traveled about fifteen miles. Beating their way up the Spanish coast turned out to be hard work.

The weather was most unhelpful. With such weather and with such a variety of ships, the fleet took thirteen days from the Rock of Lisbon to Finnisterre, a distance of a little more than one-hundred and sixty nautical miles.

Deep concerns about provisons

The Commander was now most worried about the provisons. Vast stores of foodstuffs, as sixteenth-century Spain reckoned such things, had been concertrated at Lisbon; but in the long winter's delay much had been consumed, and it was only human to eat the fresh food first.

As June had grown warmer, more ships reported spoilage, the prospect was becoming alarming. The Duke had left orders that as further supplies came in they should be sent after him at once. He had suggested that whatever provisions could be got to gether, should be put aboard victuallers and meet him of Finnisterre.

For four days the fleet hung about the waters of Finnisterre looking for the victuallers. Another alaming situation developed. Practically every squadron reported some of its ships short of water.

Even though the water-casks had been stowed for over a month, there should have been ample water for another three or four months. Many of the casks were defective and what water remained in them was often green and stinking.

At a regular Council of War meeting, it was the unanimous of the Genrals, the squadron commanders, that the whole fleet put into Corruna, to pick up what provisons it could, especially water.

That day 19th June, some fifty odd ships , great and small reached the harbour before dark; the others stood out to sea to wait for the morning.

Sometime after midnight there came the howling of a tempest, the worst tempest of that season. Some ships still at sea had to run before the storm, there was nothing else they could do, but as they ran they scattered in all directions.

On 24th some thirty ships were still missing, with about six-thousand soldiers and sailors on them. Most of the ships that had ridden out the storm were badly battered, many were leaking, with spars and masts carried away, others lost anchors or had other damage.

The Duke was angry with the contractors, but they had done the best they could. They could not get anything better than green pipe staves for the barrels. The reason was the seasoned staves that should have guarded the Armada's food and drink had been cold ashes now for twelve months, because of Drakes bonfires.

The time spent in port was an asset

It was a month after the storm before the fleet was finally ready, but on the whole the delay seems to have been worth it. All necessary repairs were completed; as many ships as possible had been careened, caulked and tallowed. Some provisions had been found in nearby ports.

Best of all, the last of the remaining ships finally straggled in. Oddly enough they had been wondering about near the channel without seeing an English ship of war.

Altogether the situation by 21st July had been restored to something like that of two months before. In some respects the Duke felt better prepared than he had been at Lisbon, when the Armada steered a course for England.

The fleet were aslmost as high as Ushant when on Tuesday 26th, the wind dropped and the fleet drifted, becalmed, under a lowering sky. That lasted until noon; then it began to blow hard out of the north with blinding rail squalls, that were violent but short.

In the night the wind hauled round to west-north-west and increased in violence; by morning it was blowing a full gale with mountainous seas and poor visability. Still the Armada kept together, all day the gale blew, and on until after midnight. Then it began to slacken so that day broke bright and clear with no more than a breeze, and the seas going down.

Their position was about seventy-five leagues south of the Scilly Isles. The Duke resumed his course. A pinnace reported that the fourty-odd missing sailing ships were ahead. On Friday 29th July, The fleet that had sailed from Carruna was united.

The Armada reaches the Channel

Before the Armada reached the Channel, on Saturday 30th July, there was held a Council of War. The squadron commanders met to discuss last minute tactics, one of them urged an attack on Plymouth; Drake was suspected to be there with the western wing of the English fleet, other officers agreed it was a good idea.

The Duke however had two reasons for not going into plymouth. In the first place it was contrary to the King's instructions, and in the second, the entrance was reported to be narrow and it was commanded by strong shore batteries. As they debated the suggestions off the Lizard of Cornwall, Drake and Howard were already at sea waiting for the Spanish to approach, with their strong English ships.

The Duke led the Armada carefully up the Channel. As they were sighted from land the first beacons roared into flames, and presently from headland to headland the smoke towered skyward, until all of the south coast were alerted. At the same time faster than any courier, other lines of beacons marched inland spreading the alarm.

In the late afternoon the fleet anchored in a long line, as they did so the look-outs saw sunlight glinting on topsails of hostile ships out beyond Eddystone. Spanish scouts were sent out to find out what they could. Howards topmen could see the long line of the Spanish fleet like a floating black wall.

It was the last day of July, when the Spaniards saw the main body of the English fleet, the Spanish were surprised to find they had lost the weather-advantage they'd had; the wind was to blow from the west for the next nine days.

This was to be the first vision the Spaniards would get of the English fleet who were opposing them in ships more weatherly than they had ever sailed in. With ships like these holding the weather-advantage for sailing, the range and the nature of the battle would be; at the enemy's choice.

Expecting the English to attack

A signal was fired and the Armada formed into battle order, each unit making or slackening sail with military precision, and changing course with due regard to its neighbours untill the whole fleet presented to the English for the first time the famous crescent formation which was to puzzle and awe them all the way up the Channel.

The English could not have done it; they had no practice in that sort of thing. English seamen did not underestimate Iberian seamanship, they were not fair-weather sailors, they had sailed in some of the roughest and most treacherous waters in the world.

The manoeuvre Howard's fleet was watching displayed a new skill as surprising in its way as the Englishman's easy recovery of the weather-advantage had been to the Spaniards. And in a way, just as dismaying. For this was a formation of great strength.

The duanting thing about the crescent formation was that the ships holding the weather-advantage could only attack its protruding wings where, of course the strongest ships were placed, and where any damaged ship could easily slip into the centre of the fleet, leaving the next great ship to take on the enemy.

And woe betide any English ships rash enough to penetrate between the extending horns. They would surely be cut off by the powerful galleons on either wing, which could close and grapple. The kind of action the Spanish most hoped for and the English most wanted to avoid.

When would the fighting begin?

Dressed in their chosen formations, the Spanish in their strange crescent, the English in double line ahead, the adversaries looked each other over, and neither side much liked what they saw.

If the English were astonished by the size of the Armada, the Spanish who knew how many of their ships were useless in battle, were surprised not only by the speed and nimbleness of the enemy but by its numbers and by the size and apparent power of his first line.

As they faced one another, the opposing admirals must each have been wondering what he was going to do next. Fleets like these were a new thing in the world.

Nobody had ever seen two such forces meet at sea to face each other in combat. There had never been naval warfare anything like this, or on this scale before?

Nobody knew what the new cannons were capable of, or what tactics would be the most effective, these hadn't been learnt. This was the beginning of a new era in naval warfare, these ships of the line, wooden walled, sail driven and armed with smooth-bore cannon, had yet to experience ship-killing in battle.

In the beginning there was no name for the ship-of-the-line and no idea how to use it. That morning off Eddystone nobody in either fleet knew how to fight a battle at sea with galleons. Nobody in the world knew how.

Howard's flagship led the English fleet in line ahead - "en ala" the Spanish called it - single file, one ship behind another, against the northern tip of the Spanish crescent.

Howard, under the impression that the ship he was attacking was the Spanish Admiral's flagship, wherein the Duke was supposed to be, exchanged broadsides with her for some time.

A different type of warfare

The spaniards were not able to close the range, and Howard had no intention of doing so the two lines were kept apart. As far as we know nobody got hurt in that part of the action.

Meanwhile a group English ships led by Drake in the "Revenge" and including Hawkins in the "Victory" and Frobisher in the "Triumph", assailed the other wing of the crescent. They met rather a different reception.

The largest and most powerful Spanish galleon, swung round to meet the attack, but the rest of the galleons sailed on. It gave the impression that either it got separated from the rest of the squadron by accident or was deliberately deserted by them. Neither seems at all probable.

The galleons of Potrugal were manned and commanded by veterans who would scarcely have panicked at the noise of a cannonade. Throughout all the rest of the fighting no squadron in either fleet behaved with greater gallentry.

The Spanish commander did not want to conform, he had disobeyed orders, parted from his squadron, ordering them not to follow him, and deliberately thrust himself into the midst of the enemy.

The Spanish commander knew better than anyone that now the fleet had lost the weather-advantage its only chance of victory was to cause as much general confusion as possible.

He had seen enough of the action already to be sure that he had read the English admiral's intentions correctly, and that Howard meant to stand cool and distant and knock the Spanish ships to pieces with his long range guns at which his ships could not get hurt.

The grappling irons were not used

It was unheard of in previous wars at sea for a single ship surrounded by enemies not to be boarded. Boarding was the only way a superior force could make sure of taking a valuable prize that is not damaged.

Among the group baring down on him, a larger ship than his and with bow and stern castles at least as high. It would be strange if her captain could not be tempted to close and fight.

The Spanish admiral knew that if he could get his grappling irons on one English galleon, or better still, on two, he could hold on until help came. Then, if the English in their turn should attempt a rescue, perhaps the general confusion, on which everything depended, could begin.

Or if he could lure an English ship close enough for him to use his big short-range ship-smashers, cannon and demi-cannon, he might accomplish something. It was worth risking a sngle ship for, even worth disobeying a formal order.

Drake must have read the Admirals mind as clearly as he had read Howard's. "Revenge" "Victory" and "Triumph" and their companions closed the range, but only to a cautious three hundred yards or so, and proceeded to pound the Spanish galleon with the long range guns which were their principal armament.

He could not get at them and they would not come to him. So for over an hour the "San Juan" alone withstood the battering of the English squadron, until a number of Spanish ship came up and supported him, and drove the English away and escorted the "San Juan" back into the midst of the fleet where she could be patched up. That was the end of the first day's fight.

There can be no doubt, that all those galleons would have made an impressive sight, heeling over, close hauled in the breeze, but the English kept their distance, only going in to toss a salvo or two of round shot at the enemy.

For both sides the first day's fighting had been a frustrating experience. The Spanish were exasperated rather than hurt. No ship in the fleet had taken as much a mauling as the "San Juan" and its injuries amounted to no more than two cannon balls in the foremast, some stays and rigging shot away, and a handful of killed and wounded.

As for the English, if they were not hurt they were beginning to be alarmed. This was a bigger, tougher enemy than they had ever bargained for. The Spanish seamanship and discipline all day had been impeccable, and the Spaniards had been as full of fight at the end as at the beginning. The Armada was more heavily gunned that they had looked for.

The first Spanish losses

Now the Armada was moving slowly up the Channel, in unbroken order heading towards its destination.

The first two serious Spanish galleon losses came after the battle, two accidents, unrelated to action but just as devistating.

Some time after four in the afternoon as the Spanish were re-forming their defensive crescent, Don Pedro de Valdes's flagship, collided with another and lost its bowsrit, and weakened the main mast, which eventually crashed into the sea. Some futile attempts were made to save her, but in the end she had to be left behind.

And then only a few minutes later there was a tremendous explosion. The "San Salvador," was seen ablaze; her poop and two decks had dissapeared. Obviously the gunpowder stored astern had blown up. Every person in the vicinity of the explosion seems to have been killed.

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The English Council of War

Most of the members agreed that they believed the Spanish intended to seize a port somewhere along the south coast to gain a foot-hold. Several possible ports and anchorages with good landings lay ahead, the question was, which one were they after?

Drake was appointed to lead the fleet that night, with the rest following, guided by the great poop lantern on the stern. With a freshning breeze behind them the English were hurrying after the Armada.

For one reason or another, Howard was following directly behind Drake, when the lookout lost sight of the lantern.

During the next afternoon when the "Revenge" re-joined the fleet, Drake reported to Howard. 'That late in the evening' he had noticed some shadowy outlines, feering the enemy might be trying to slip round under the cover of darkness to gain the weather-advantage, he had put out the lantern and turned to challenge them. But they turned out to be German merchantmen.'

Drake had with him only the "Roebuck" a big Plymouth privateer with Captain Whiddon a trusted friend, and two of his own pinnaces.

He approached Don Pedro de Valdes's crippled flagship floating aimlessly on the sea. At first Don Pedro was not prepared to bargain with an Englishman, but when he heard that his challenger was Drake himself he thought no shame to yield on the assurance of fair treatment.

Drake then sent Captain Whiddon with the "Roebuck" to escort his prize to Tor Bay.

Sir Francis Drake was famous all over the seven seas for his craft or instinct which led him to the exact spot in a vast expanse of water where he could find a specially desirable prize, such as Don Pedro's certainly was.

A large galleon, a forty-six gun ship, with a great store of arms and munitions, and with fifty-thousand gold ducats in the captain's cabin, she was by far the richest as it turned out to be taken in the entire Armada campaign.

The continuation of this Naval History will be: "Armada Plight"

Armada Embarks

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