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20 - Sir Francis Drake by Julian Corbett · Sir Francis Drake

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty of Sir Francis Drake by Julian Corbett. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Pamela
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  Speaker 1: and Nagami, Chapter eleven, The Battle of Graveline, Part two.
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  Speaker 1: Seeing the danger, the Duke signaled to his immediate following
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  Speaker 1: to keep on to where the fight raged round the
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  Speaker 1: crippled Saint Anna, while he himself went about and bore
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  Speaker 1: down to support the galleases and protect his more defenseless charges.
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  Speaker 1: The triumph was now in serious danger, Nor could the
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  Speaker 1: English seamen, having once exposed the Armada's vulnerable point, permitted
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  Speaker 1: to be covered again without a blow. Moreover, the continual
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  Speaker 1: closing up of the scattered Spanish rear guard had rendered
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  Speaker 1: the struggle round Ricalde too equal to suit Drake's ideas.
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  Speaker 1: Once more, he and his fellows disengaged, and Sidonia suddenly
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  Speaker 1: found himself alone between the transports and his rear guard,
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  Speaker 1: with all the English battleships bearing down upon him. Having
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  Speaker 1: reduced the Santana to such a wreck that Racalde was
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  Speaker 1: compelled to transfer his flag, they were bent untreating as
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  Speaker 1: hardly the Captain General of the Ocean Sea, with all
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  Speaker 1: the Old world Chivalry of Spain. The Duke shortened sail
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  Speaker 1: to await the attack, and for an hour endured alone
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  Speaker 1: the whole fire of his enemy, as ship by ship
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  Speaker 1: passed by and plunged its broadside into the great San Martin,
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  Speaker 1: from its fortress, of the poop, from its castle, of
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  Speaker 1: the prow, from its placidae atamas, and the waist. The
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  Speaker 1: splinters shivered and split till the water poured in through
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  Speaker 1: the shotholes. The rigging hung in ruin, and the holy
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  Speaker 1: standard of the crusade was rent in twain. So they
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  Speaker 1: left him and passed on to support Frobisher and gather
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  Speaker 1: the fruit of Drake's bewildering tactics. Under all sail, the
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  Speaker 1: Spanish battleships toiled to the rescue. But when as the
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  Speaker 1: sun sank low, Sedonia had once more gathered up his
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  Speaker 1: flock into a roundel, there were many that labored sorely, and.
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  Speaker 2: Three were gone.
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  Speaker 1: It was a poor enough result for a hard fought action.
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  Speaker 1: The English powder was spent, another day was gone, and
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  Speaker 1: still the Armada looked almost as formidable as ever. Yet
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  Speaker 1: the effect was deeper than it seemed. With no little alarm,
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  Speaker 1: the Spanish officers had been shown the mobility of a
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  Speaker 1: fleet formed line ahead, and its power of concentration on
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  Speaker 1: weak points. It was the first dawn of those modern
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  Speaker 1: tactics which Blake and Monk were to develop and Nelson
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  Speaker 1: to perfect, and both sides recognized the great fact. The
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  Speaker 1: Spaniard's hearts sank as they saw how ill adapted were
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  Speaker 1: their floating fortresses for the new situation, and a bolder
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  Speaker 1: purpose inspired Howard. On the morrow, though active operations were
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  Speaker 1: confined to twice, compelling the Armada to stop its advance
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  Speaker 1: and form line of battle to its rear, a most
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  Speaker 1: important step was taken after the morning cannonade had ceased.
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  Speaker 1: For some hours, the English ships were seen tacking hither
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  Speaker 1: and thither in strange disorder. But at last, out of
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  Speaker 1: the confusion, four distinct lines developed themselves and bore down
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  Speaker 1: on the wondering Spaniards to compel them once more to
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  Speaker 1: shorten sail and haul to the wind. Yet not a
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  Speaker 1: shot was fired, and no sooner was the Spanish battle
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  Speaker 1: array completely formed, than the four lines twisted back like
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  Speaker 1: snakes and left it untouched. Vexed to be so fooled,
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  Speaker 1: and convinced that the English meant only to delay him
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  Speaker 1: till the fine weather should break. Sdonia resolved to turn
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  Speaker 1: no more till the spires of Calais rose in sight,
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  Speaker 1: but he was wrong. Reinforced and supple flight anew with powder.
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  Speaker 1: Howard at last felt justified in pushing home an attack.
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  Speaker 1: Three days had passed since the fleets first engaged. Three
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  Speaker 1: days more would bring the Armada to its goal, and
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  Speaker 1: although its advance had been well delayed, there was still
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  Speaker 1: no sign of a return of the tempestuous weather. It
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  Speaker 1: would no longer do to watch the face of the skies.
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  Speaker 1: If the Armada's power was to be broken, it must
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  Speaker 1: be by the hand of man. By this time they
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  Speaker 1: were abreast to the Isle of Wight, and its proximity
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  Speaker 1: emphasized the necessity for prompt offensive action. From his exalted prisoner,
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  Speaker 1: Drake had been able to learn that in certain contingencies
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  Speaker 1: the island was to be occupied in order to provide
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  Speaker 1: a harbor of refuge for the Armada, and it was
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  Speaker 1: clear the great effort could no longer be delayed, nor
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  Speaker 1: could a better battlefield be wished for than the spot
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  Speaker 1: the two fleets had now reached. As they lay off
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  Speaker 1: off Sundon Bay, between the island and Celsey Bill.
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  Speaker 2: The Armada had in its lee.
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  Speaker 1: A whole network of shoals stretching from the Ower's to Spitthead,
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  Speaker 1: and a vigorous attack from windward promised either to press
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  Speaker 1: it in confusion amongst the intricate channels off Portsmouth, or,
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  Speaker 1: if it attempted to weather the Bill and so regain
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  Speaker 1: the open sea, to drive it on the ower Bank.
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  Speaker 1: Such at least would seem to have been Drake's idea,
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  Speaker 1: and it was probably to increase the energy of the
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  Speaker 1: attack that Howard had consented to divide the fleet into
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  Speaker 1: four divisions. He himself commanded the first, and Drake retained
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  Speaker 1: his own at the second, while the third and fourth
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  Speaker 1: were given respectively to Howard's two flag officers, Hawkins and Frobisher.
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  Speaker 1: To attack Sedonia's serried ranks as they were was but
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  Speaker 1: to court defeat, and in Council of War it had
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  Speaker 1: been resolved that during the night, six merchantmen from each division,
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  Speaker 1: by engaging at four different points, were to loosen the
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  Speaker 1: Spaniard's formation and prepare it for the attack of the battleships.
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  Speaker 1: So Drake meant to wrestle his great fall with the
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  Speaker 1: Spanish power. It was a well laid scheme, and had
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  Speaker 1: the wind held, the Armada might never have sailed another
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  Speaker 1: league to the east. But as it chanced, the wind
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  Speaker 1: fell so light that the detailed merchantmen were unable to
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  Speaker 1: carry out their orders, and as the morning of the
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  Speaker 1: fourth day broke serene and calm, the only sign of
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  Speaker 1: movement was where some of Hawkins's vessels were seen trying
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  Speaker 1: to tow themselves alongside the Santa Anna and another crippled Spaniard.
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  Speaker 1: Well nigh helpless with their wounds, they had drifted from
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  Speaker 1: the ranks and seemed an easy prey. Three galleases came
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  Speaker 1: sweeping to the rescue in all their majesty of oar
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  Speaker 1: and sail, but it was not to victory. With dogged courage,
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  Speaker 1: the leading ships of Howard and Frobisher's divisions were towed
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  Speaker 1: by their boats to meet the floating castles, and were
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  Speaker 1: soon tearing and shattering them with chain shot and a
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  Speaker 1: hail of balls. The boldest of the Spanish rearguard struggled
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  Speaker 1: into support, and at last Sidonia signaled for a general action.
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  Speaker 1: It was the feast of San Domingo, his patron saint
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  Speaker 1: a light breeze had sprung up in his favor, and,
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  Speaker 1: with banners flying and trumpets braying, convinced at last that
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  Speaker 1: its hour of victory had come, the armada formed in
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  Speaker 1: line of battle. The Holy Standard rose aloft, and the
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  Speaker 1: tide of battle turned. The disabled galleases were got out
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  Speaker 1: of action, and Frobisher and Howard, cut off and surrounded,
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  Speaker 1: seemed doomed to meet no better fate. The rest of
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  Speaker 1: the fleet were standing away, as though to save themselves
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  Speaker 1: and desert their comrades, and the Spaniards felt certain of
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  Speaker 1: their prey. Still, like the heroes of some Homeric fire,
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  Speaker 1: the isolated admirals fought on, dealing destruction around and clearing
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  Speaker 1: themselves with their boats from every ship that attempted to
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  Speaker 1: lay them aboard. In wonder and admiration, the Spaniards still
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  Speaker 1: pressed closer till the wind began to freshen. Then at
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  Speaker 1: last they learnt the meaning of the strange tactics of
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  Speaker 1: the enemy's two starboard divisions. While Howard and Frobisher were
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  Speaker 1: holding the Spaniards over the brink of the pit, Drake
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  Speaker 1: and Hawkins had laboriously secured a vantage ground from which
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  Speaker 1: to thrust them down and air. Sedonia had well grasped
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  Speaker 1: the sudden jeopardy in which his whole fleet was placed.
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  Speaker 1: The two Kinsmen, with half a gale of wind and
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  Speaker 1: their swelling sails, crashed in.
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  Speaker 2: Upon his left. The charge was irresistible.
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  Speaker 1: The amazed weather squadrons gave way, crowding in upon the
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  Speaker 1: center and forcing the whole armada to leeward. In vain
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  Speaker 1: did Frobisher's persecutor's turn. Howard was free now and added
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  Speaker 1: the weight of heat his consorts to the confusion with
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  Speaker 1: a new attack. The mouth of Portsmouth Roads yawned on
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  Speaker 1: Sidonia's lee, as though to engulf his armada down. Came
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  Speaker 1: the holy standard of his crusading king. In its place
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  Speaker 1: flew the signal to close up and a roundel, and so,
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  Speaker 1: to the indignation of his fighting admirals, he hastened to
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  Speaker 1: make his escape, and, inclining away to the coast of France,
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  Speaker 1: saved his fleet from the ower banks. A hot fray,
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  Speaker 1: wrote Hawkins, wherein some store of powder was spent, and
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  Speaker 1: after all little done. The change of wynd had saved Sidonia.
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  Speaker 1: Drake and his Kinsmen knew their movement had failed, but
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  Speaker 1: Howards celebrated it as a victory as the two fleets lay,
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  Speaker 1: but calmed. Next day, some two miles apart on the
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  Speaker 1: poop of the Ark Royal, he knighted Frobisher and three
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  Speaker 1: noble kinsmen of his own, who had fought their ships
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  Speaker 1: at his side. They were the heroes, the poets sang,
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  Speaker 1: and well they deserved the praise. But though Hawkins was
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  Speaker 1: made Sir John with the rest for the cool head
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  Speaker 1: that had planned the fight and so nearly destroyed the
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  Speaker 1: enemy with strange tactics in which bards could see no meaning,
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  Speaker 1: there was no reward. Frobisher, the intrepid explorer, who knew
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  Speaker 1: nothing of naval warfare, even accused the rivalhood eclipsed his
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  Speaker 1: fame of cowardice when he heard Drake had taken Don
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  Speaker 1: Pedro de Baldez and his great galleon. He swore the
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  Speaker 1: man that had brought England to all her trouble had
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  Speaker 1: deliberately lagged behind to reap the reward of his comrade's courage.
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  Speaker 1: The story is sad to tell, but let it be
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  Speaker 1: the glory of Elizabeth's captains that, in the heat of
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  Speaker 1: their jealousy and quarrels, they never forgot the sacred cause
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  Speaker 1: she personified. The last chance of destroying the Armada before
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  Speaker 1: it reached its destination was now gone. All Friday, the
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  Speaker 1: two fleets lay within sight of each other till in
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  Speaker 1: the evening the breeze got up from the southwest, and
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  Speaker 1: the Armada began the last stage of its adventurous voyage.
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  Speaker 1: So splendid was the order it kept before the wind
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  Speaker 1: that though the English still dogged its heels, no attack
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  Speaker 1: was attempted, and ashore spurs pressed deep, and beacons flamed,
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  Speaker 1: faint hearts sank, and brave men trooped together, as almost untouched,
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  Speaker 1: the great host drew to its goal. On Saturday afternoon.
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  Speaker 1: It was passing Calais six leagues more, and it would
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  Speaker 1: reach Dunkirk when suddenly it came to Anchor, completely surprised
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  Speaker 1: the English so nearly overran the enemy that they only
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  Speaker 1: save the weather Gage by boldly anchoring within gunshot to windward.
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  Speaker 1: It was a solemn hour as Seymour and Winter from
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  Speaker 1: the Channel fleet joined with the rest on Howard's flagship
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  Speaker 1: in momentous council. As the great German historian has said,
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  Speaker 1: the fortune of Man hung on the balance. When we
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  Speaker 1: consider the difficulties of the navigation even for a single ship,
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  Speaker 1: the projecting headlands of the Channel, the intricate currents, the
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  Speaker 1: precarious winds. It is impossible not to admire the brilliant
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  Speaker 1: manner in which the Great Armada had been brought to
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  Speaker 1: its destination. In spite of the greatest seamen of the age,
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  Speaker 1: in spite of the incubus of a cumbrous convoy, it
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  Speaker 1: had reached with an arm's length of its goal, and
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  Speaker 1: amid the hurried tramp of the gathering levees, arose loud
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  Speaker 1: railing at the English captains for their failure. The Spaniards
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  Speaker 1: themselves could hardly credit their success. They were dispirited with
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  Speaker 1: their losses. To Leeward lay the unknown terrors of the
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  Speaker 1: North Sea. To Winward was a horror worse than all,
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  Speaker 1: For there they knew was Eldrake, busy brewing in his
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  Speaker 1: ships as they rode so peacefully at their anchors, the
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  Speaker 1: devilry for which he had had let them come so far.
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  Speaker 1: Such thoughts, at least, the terror of that name conjured
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  Speaker 1: as the night fell. Nor were they very wrong who
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  Speaker 1: first thought of it? None can tell. Indeed, it matters
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  Speaker 1: little since that terrible night in Verdacu's harbor twenty years ago,
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  Speaker 1: and later when the Devil ship blew parm As legions
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  Speaker 1: to atoms on the Antwerp boom. The device was in
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  Speaker 1: every man's mind. It was a remedy hardly fit for
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  Speaker 1: Christian men to use. Yet at all hazards the Armada
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  Speaker 1: must be dislodged. The Dutch fleet, which had been blockading Dunkirk,
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  Speaker 1: had been compelled by its necessities to retire and leave
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  Speaker 1: Palmer free to come out at any moment. The weather
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  Speaker 1: might serve, and in a few hours the Great Army
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  Speaker 1: might have passed the channel. It was on Sunday the
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  Speaker 1: Council of War met and ere it separated.
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  Speaker 2: The grim resolve was.
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  Speaker 1: Taken that night the tide would serve, and Sir Henry
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  Speaker 1: Palmer sped to Dover for the means which for this
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  Speaker 1: supreme moment had been collected there. But no sooner was
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  Speaker 1: he gone than there were some that grew impatient and
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  Speaker 1: saw that he could not return.
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  Speaker 2: In time to catch the tide.
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  Speaker 1: It would not do to risk the loss of another day.
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  Speaker 1: There were ships in plenty with the fleet. Drake offered
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  Speaker 1: one of his own for the sacrifice, and seven more
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  Speaker 1: were quickly chosen. As the night closed in dark and moonless,
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  Speaker 1: a presentiment of impending doom disquieted the great host to leeward.
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  Speaker 1: The awful tragedy of Antwerp was in every mind, and
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  Speaker 1: hither and thither flitted launches patrolling to windward of the
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  Speaker 1: Spanish anchorage in nervous expectation. Midnight had passed, the night
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  Speaker 1: was at its blackest, and the rushing tide swirled dark
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  Speaker 1: and angry through the crowded galleons as they lay laboring,
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  Speaker 1: each with two anchors out in the depth of the gloom.
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  Speaker 1: Whence the flood was sweeping with the wind. The English
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  Speaker 1: lights were twinkling peacefully till a sudden flare obscured their brightness.
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  Speaker 1: Then another, and another burst out and glowed and grew,
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  Speaker 1: till eight flaming masses reddened the night and sped forward
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  Speaker 1: with wind and tide upon the terror stricken armada. Such
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  Speaker 1: as sight man's eyes had never seen. What wonder if
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  Speaker 1: a panic seized the Spanish fleet.
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  Speaker 2: There was no time to weigh.
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  Speaker 1: In reckless haste, cables were slipped and cut, and like
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  Speaker 1: a herd of stampeding cattle in mad confusion, the tide
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  Speaker 1: swept the Great Fleet away, crashing ship on ship through
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  Speaker 1: a tangle of writhing cables. End of section twenty