THE SPANISH MENACE 



tons to eighty. Eighteen more sizeable merchantmen and forty-three 

 little coasters were ready to fight, fifteen more carried victuals to the 

 West, and another twenty-three ships of all sizes came forward and 

 volunteered when the enemy was on the coast. Many of these merchant- 

 men did little but swell the lists, the fighting falling on a portion of the 

 fleet only. If our ships could keep their distance they were all 

 right, for the Spanish gunports were made very small and so added to the 

 inferiority of their artillery, but once they were laid alongside they 

 would be in sorry plight, for the high sides of the Spaniards made them 

 very difficult to board in force, and their soldiers well knew the use of 

 their swords and pikes. Most important of all, the Spanish ships made a 

 tremendous leeway and would not sail anywhere near the wind. 



The False Start. 



To the superstitious the start of the Armada was not auspicious. It 

 left Lisbon in fine style, but next day only a part of it contrived to make 

 Corunna. Bad weather had sprung up and the greater part of the fleet 

 was scattered. Some of the ships were blown up as far as the Scilly Isles, 

 where they chased some English merchantmen and raised the alarm that 

 the invaders had arrived. Howard put to sea, although he was doubtful 

 of the truth of the report, and wasted a lot of time and invaluable stores 

 in the pursuit of the phantom fleet, whose ships in the meantime had 

 returned to the main body at Corunna. There Medina Sidonia actually 

 wrote to King Philip advising him to give up the whole project and make 

 terms with the English, an action which one would have expected to 

 result in his immediate relief. It is rather remarkable to note in this 

 letter that after the whole energies of Spain had been directed to the 

 equipment of the fleet the victuals were insufficient and scarce — in fact, 

 except for ammunition, they do not appear to have been much better 

 found than the English ships. At Corunna the ships were repaired and 

 watered and finally got ready for departure, when the spirit of every- 

 body but the admiral appears to have been good. 



The Real Start. 



Finally, the fleet got away in the early morning of July 12th, the 

 signal to weigh being given as soon as the weather gave promise of 

 becoming calm. This it did rather too thoroughly, for some hours after 

 sailing the whole fleet was still clustered round the mouth of the harbour. 

 Then a fair breeze sprang up, and they got way on, only to be badly 

 scattered by a storm on the seventeenth. By the twentieth practically 

 all the missing ships had rejoined the flag and the English coast was in 

 sight, signal beacons on every suitable hill passing the alarm. The fleet 

 in Plymouth had already been warned by Thomas Flemyng in the Golden 

 Hind and was warping out of the port, greatly hindered by a south- 

 westerly breeze which was just what the invaders wanted. They had 

 made up their minds to attack the English in Plymouth, but by the time 

 they arrived in sight of the port our ships were most of them outside and 

 very ready to do the attacking. 



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