Heresies of sea power . ay raise the blockade in face of the Englishfleet without first beating that fleet. The next night fireships were sent into the Spanishfleet and on the following morning, June 29 thebattle of Gravelines was fought. It lasted from ninetill six at night, at which time the Armada mauledand shattered bore away to the northwards, pursuedby the victorious English. Its exact loss of ships inthe battle was not, however, very great—only someseven ships being actually destroyed. The remainder,unable to return by the Straits of Dover essayed acourse home by the north of Scotland,
Heresies of sea power . ay raise the blockade in face of the Englishfleet without first beating that fleet. The next night fireships were sent into the Spanishfleet and on the following morning, June 29 thebattle of Gravelines was fought. It lasted from ninetill six at night, at which time the Armada mauledand shattered bore away to the northwards, pursuedby the victorious English. Its exact loss of ships inthe battle was not, however, very great—only someseven ships being actually destroyed. The remainder,unable to return by the Straits of Dover essayed acourse home by the north of Scotland, where themajority of them perished by wreck and storm. Stripped of its romance, the failure of the Armadais no conclusive proof that its conception was a greatstrategical error. Had it been on the lines first con-ceived by Santa Cruz, carrying all the necessarysoldiers instead of having to go to the Netherlands forthem, it is difficult to prove from the results of theearly fights in the Channel, that it could not have. p ft, < < tr< I(/) z W X h O u LU Ih h < I1/3 IC/) m THE SPANISH AKMADA 83 occupied the Isle of Wight or effected a landing at adozen other spots upon the south coast of what we know of Santa Cruz there is no reasonto believe that he would have attempted to use it soill-found as it actually was; and had it been less ill-found, had it not run out of ammunition, had it beenproperly handled, the English plight would have beenundoubtedly serious. Its own utter failure is proofthat it failed ; but it is less clear that it proves invasionin face of a fleet to have been impossible in the six-teenth century when invaders lived upon the countryinvaded in ways impossible to-day. Scipio Africanusinvaded Africa and reduced Carthage to sue for peacein face of a defending fleet which once at least attackedhim with some success. Coming to more recentevents the Allies invaded the Crimea in face of a fleetwhich, had it only acted as the English acted ag
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectwar, bookyear1906
