188 KINGSBRIDGE 



from Plymouth Sound, under the command of the Lord 

 High Admiral Howard, of Effingham. 



The reader of English history needs not to be reminded 

 how, in spite of isolated captures, the Spanish fleet held 

 its course through the narrow seas, with purpose to form in 

 Calais roads a junction with the land forces of Alexander 

 Farnese, Duke of Parma, Philip's astute general in the 

 Netherlands; how this purpose was frustrated by the com- 

 bined agency of the weather, the confusion resulting from 

 the attacks of the English ships, and the blockade of Farnese 

 by the Dutch in their own harbours; and how, scattered 

 by a storm, the remnants of the great Armada staggered 

 northwards through the German Ocean. The great heart of 

 England again beat freely, for the disaster which had well 

 nigh changed her history was providentially averted. The 

 comparatively few vessels that escaped loss on the perilous 

 shores of Norway, and the equally inhospitable Hebrides, 

 sought to beat their way homewards by the western coasts 

 of Britain and Ireland, till of all that splendid fleet of 

 gilded and turreted ships, scarce fifty returned to bear the 

 tidings to King Philip of the lamentable end of the mightiest 

 of his great enterprises. 



One of the two hospital ships appointed for the Spanish 

 navy was named the St. Peter the Great. She was upwards 

 of 500 tons burden, and was laden with drugs and medical 

 stores. Either the adverse gales of November had driven 

 the ship from its course, after completing the entire circuit 

 of Great Britain, or her commander had made for the 

 enemy's land as the only chance of saving his sinking 

 vessel. Certain it is that she came ashore in Hope Bay, 

 near Salcombe. Manned by a thoroughly dispirited crew, 

 the ill-fated St. Peter was set upon and plundered by the 



