. Drake and the Tudor navy, with a history of the rise of England as a maritime power. nd burn themselvesout harmlessly to leeward. Yet they had done theirwork. Fortune, wrote an officer, so favoured them thatthere grew from this piece of industry just what theycounted on, for they dislodged us with eight vessels, anexploit which with one hundred and thirty they had notbeen able to do nor dared to attempt. 1 When morning broke the Armada was seen to havedrifted away to the north-east and to be scattered alongthe coast towards Dunkirk with no trace of soon as Sidonia had seen the f
. Drake and the Tudor navy, with a history of the rise of England as a maritime power. nd burn themselvesout harmlessly to leeward. Yet they had done theirwork. Fortune, wrote an officer, so favoured them thatthere grew from this piece of industry just what theycounted on, for they dislodged us with eight vessels, anexploit which with one hundred and thirty they had notbeen able to do nor dared to attempt. 1 When morning broke the Armada was seen to havedrifted away to the north-east and to be scattered alongthe coast towards Dunkirk with no trace of soon as Sidonia had seen the fire-ships drift clear, hehad brought up and anchored, firing a gun as a signal forthe rest of his fleet to do the same. His idea was that atdaylight he would be able to return to Calais Koad to pickup the moorings from which he had been driven. One ofthe finest of the Portuguese galleons, called the SanMarcos, and one or two other vessels that were in closecompany, obeyed the signal; but the bulk of the fleet,having lost two anchors and being unable to get at their 1 Duro, ii. THE BATTLE OF GKAVELINES 273 spare ones in time, had continued to drift along the coastto the north-eastward and to leeward, and were now offGravelines some two leagues from When thefirst light of day revealed the position, it was made obviousto the Duke that his idea was impracticable. The windwas at south-south-west with a tendency to veer: sothat, far from his ships being able to recover their anchors,it was impossible for them even to close up on the flag-ship for hours. Sidonia therefore very properly weighedand ran down in order to form battle-order on the mostleewardly Such was the sight which greeted the English admiralsas they strained their eyes for dawn to reveal the effect oftheir stratagem. To dislodge the fleet they knew was onlya beginning. At Sundays council-of-war everything hadbeen arranged for a hot attack before the enemy couldrecover from their confusion and re-f
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectdrakefrancis15401596
