320 Professor J. K. Laughton [May 4, 



heavily armed ships in the fleet ; and of these the San Lorenzo, which 

 was taken off Calais, was the largest and heaviest. The report of her 

 armament given by our people, who had possession of her for some 

 time, corresj)onds fairly well with the official statement.* The Nuestra 

 Senora del Bosario was the large ship captured by Drake and sent 

 into Torbay-t Her armament is given from the official inventory 

 taken at Torquay. She is spoken of by Duro as one of the most 

 powerful and best ships of the fleet, f The other two ships do not 

 seem distinguished in any way from others of the same size ; they 

 belonged to the Levant squadron, and are classed with the San Juan 

 de Sicilia of 800 tons and 26 guns, which is spoken of as having 

 taken a prominent part in the action of 29th July. I have not met 

 with any account of the armament of the sliij^s of the Portuguese 

 squadron, including the San Martin, San Felipe, and San Mateo, of 

 which all three were in the thickest of the tight, and the two last 

 were driven on shore in a sinking state. Neither have I met with 

 any inventory of the Nuestra Senora de la Eosa, the ship that was 

 partially blown up, and was sent into Weymouth. I do not, of course, 

 suppose that the more effective fighting ships of the fleet were armed 

 like the Anunciada or Santa Maria de Vison ; but I do believe that 

 the armament of these is a fair representative of that of a very large 

 proportion of ships that have been counted as effective. 



I must note also, that whereas the Spanish ships of below 300 tons 

 burden carried four or six small guns — a merely nominal armament 

 — English ships of 200 tons carried a very respectable armament, 

 and ships even still smaller were not altogether despicable. Of 

 the way in which the English merchant ships were armed, we have 

 no knowledge ; but considering that the fitting them out for purposes 

 of war was no novelty, that many of them had probably been on 

 privateering cruises before, and that the Pelican or Golden Hind, in 

 which Drake went round the world — a ship of nominally 100 tons — 

 had 14 guns, I would distinctly question Barrow's judgment that, 

 "looking at their tonnage, two-thirds of them, at least, would have 

 been of little, if any, service, and indeed must have required 

 uncommon vigilance to keep them out of harm's way."§ They were 

 not, indeed, the ships that were to be found in the fort-front of the 

 fight — no more were the Eunjalus or Naiad at Trafalgar — but I see 

 no reason to doubt that they did, in their own way, render good and 

 efficient service. 



It was not only in the number and weight of guns that the English 

 had a great comparative advantage ; they were immensely superior in 

 the working of them. I may quote here from Captain Duro a very 

 remarkable statement, which, however, is fully corroborated by 

 original writers and by known facts. By the Spaniards, he says, || 



* ' State Papers,' Domestic, ccxiii. 67 ; Duro, i. p. 390. 



t ' State Papers,' Domestic, ccxv. 671. 



X Duro, i. p. SSn : " una de las mas fucrtes y mejores de la Armada.' 



§ ' Life of Drake,' p. 270. |i Duro, 1. p. 77. 



J 



