The Armada, Part 2© Neal West
Oct 20, 2000
Amid much fanfare and cheers, the huge Spanish Armada of 130 warships left the port of Tagus on 20 May 1588. From the beginning, things began to go wrong. First, the veteran Admiral Santa Cruz, who was to guide the massive force to it’s rendezvous with the invasion force off the Low Countries, died. To replace him, the Spanish King Phillip II selected Alonzo Perez de Gusman, Duke of Medina Sidonia. Gusman, though a competent commander, was not a naval man.
Sailing North, the Armada then was assailed by a massive storm, which caused serious damage and drove the fleet back to the ports of Biscay and Galicia for repairs and refitting. When word of this reached England, many thought that the threat would be put off for another year. However, Lord Howard, the lord-high Admiral of the English fleet, thought the threat real enough to ignore an order to dismantle his principal ships. Lord Howard was also not content to let his fleet sit idly by waiting for the Spanish fleet to refit and sail at it’s leisure. Instead, he and Sir Francis Drake sailed with a small fleet of about 40 vessels to the Spanish port of Corunna, hoping to surprise and attack some part of the Armada anchored there. The weather turned against them, however, as they approached the Spanish coast. The winds, which were blowing southward, suddenly changed to the north and Howard feared that the Armada might take advantage of these winds and sail by him northward unobserved. Prudently, he decided to take his force back to the mouth of the channel and stand guard.
Eventually, word reached Howard that the Armada was still in port ravaged by sickness, so he decided to head back to Plymouth.
On the 12th of July, the Armada finally recovered enough to sail again for the channel. The Spanish plan was simple; the Armada would drive away the English ships in the channel giving them command of the sea. Then they would join the invasion force under Parma at Calais and escort them across the channel to England.
Although the English outnumbered the ships of the Armada, the English vessels were inferior to their opponents, with the Spanish enjoying a two to one margin in total tonnage as well as a great superiority in the number of guns. Furthermore, the English had to divide their forces, 40 of their best ships were busy keeping Parma’s invasion force bottled up in their French ports. The English advantage lay in their gunnery, both in range and accuracy, and the fact that their ships – being smaller – were more maneuverable than the larger Spanish ships. The pieces were in place for one of the decisive battles of the world.
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