The Armada Wrecks on the Irish Coast. 61 



and the English had a great many more of those heavy guns 

 in that fight. The Spaniards always wished to come into close 

 quarters, but the English kept them at arm's length. 



When the Spaniards were beaten they had to retreat round 

 the North of Scotland and down the West of Ireland back to 

 Spain, which the remainder of them reached starving, sick, and 

 in a miserable plight. 



The largest ship in the Armada was 1,300 tons, and carried 

 about 40 guns. The largest English ship was about i,too tons, 

 so that there was only about 100 tons difference in size. The 

 poops of the Spanish vessels were very high ; the English cut 

 their ships lower, and had an advantage in sailing. The 

 English ships had been greatly improved in rigging. They 

 were able to sail within five points of the wind ; the Spanish 

 ships could only sail within six points of the wind. There was 

 about one point of difference, and it made all the difference in 

 the world. It enabled the English ships to keep the Spaniards 

 to leeward. The reason why the English ships sailed closer to 

 the wind was described in a book by Sir Walter Raleigh. The 

 Spanish and English vessels carried big sails, and the English 

 adopted bowlines, which were a great invention of that da}', 

 and enabled the English to sail round the Spaniards. 



Some of the Spanish vessels, the lecturer pointed out, were 

 propelled by three hundred rowers each, the idea being that 

 they should be able to attack when they liked, and in the calm 

 weather that no vessel could stand an attack from them. Un- 

 fortunately there was very little calm weather. The galleys, 

 with hundreds of slaves chained to the oars, were always 

 worsted. 



The lecturer then gave an account of the battle and the 

 retreat of the Spaniards up the North Sea and down the West 

 Coast of Scotland and Ireland. Out of 131 vessels only 65 

 returned. Large numbers of the vessels perished on the Irish 

 coasts. He gave a resume of what had been learned of the 

 adventures of the following vessels, illustrating his discourse by 

 old maps, charts, and photographs, for the most part taken by 



