364 : The Atlantic 



them keeping up wind. Lighter, faster and with cannons of longer 

 range, the English ships hung on the flank of the Armada, sinking 

 or cutting out one victim after another, through the Channel and 

 into the North Sea. 



Some of the Spanish did indeed seek refuge in Channel ports such 

 as Calais and Gravelines but Drake on July 28 sent "fireships" into 

 the harbor and fearing to be set afire the Spanish ships fled again, 

 at least one of them running aground in their haste to escape. No 

 rest and heavy weather — the only land of England the Armada ever 

 touched was the sands where they grounded or rocks where they 

 sank. 



The main battle — if it can be called that — took place in the North 

 Sea. The English ships were faster and their cannons had a longer 

 range. Under Drake's plan they wisely used these advantages and 

 made no attempt to board any Spanish vessel. Had they done so the 

 sheer weight of Spanish soldiers might have been of some use. As 

 matters stood the soldiers were merely a useless, seasick, hungry 

 encumbrance. 



In a ten-day flight the Armada rounded Scotland and Ireland and 

 scattered in the hope of reaching home, but by that time forty ships 

 were sunk, wrecked or captured and half the manpower of the fleet 

 was lost. By the end of July the way to colonies in the New World 

 lay wide open to England. 



It is sometimes supposed that the mere existence of the Atlantic 

 Ocean protected a colony or a nation from becoming involved in 

 European wars and that when English or French or other colonists 

 came to America they evaded war. 



Colonial history seems to refute this idea. It seems more likely that 

 if the American nations have enjoyed some freedom from warfare 

 from time to time it has been because they have been sufficiently well 

 armed to resist invasion by sea. 



Certainly the colonists had scarcely established themselves in Amer- 

 ica before they became embroiled with each other: the French fight- 

 ing the Spanish; the French fighting the English colonies; the Eng- 

 lish fighting the Dutch; etc. 



Very often these seemed like scattered battles or local wars. The 

 underlying situation, however, was that the colonists had by no 

 means escaped from the rounds of European wars. Contact with the 

 mother country was often slow and infrequent. The colonists often 

 felt that they were remotely and imperfectly governed, yet the ties 



