Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 197, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1917 — Battles Which Made the World [ARTICLE]

Battles Which Made the World

THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA - Fire nad Storm — d the s«« Kln«»of Reallatoar Hie Dream of a World Empire.

By CAPT. ROLAND F. ANDREWS

(Copyright, 1917, by McClure Newspaper Syndicate)

It Is said that before the start of the present hostilities Winston Churchill, then first lord of the British admiralty, mobilized the grand fleet in defiance of orders not to do so, and thus was ready to spring at Germany with every sea dog of England when war brpke forth. If Colonel Churchill thus acted he had high English example in the case of Lord Howard Effingham. It was he who is high admiral of England in 1588 disobeyed most flagrantly Queen Elizabeth’s own order to dismantle part of his fleet and was therefore possessed • of the strength to smash the great armada of Spain when its lofty galleons came rolling into the channel. Spain was at that time perhaps the most powerful nation in the world. England was by comparison feeble. Spain sought l world empire. Her Philip believed it possible to make himself the head of a universal monarchy, sharing power only with the pope. England stood in his way. Hence the dispatch of the armada to make England vassal to Spain, burn her heretics and establish the sway of Philip over both the old and the new hemispheres. Howard, with his captains, was at a game of bowls in Plymouth town when there came scuttling into the harbor a Scotch privateer with the tews that the armada was even then off the Cornish coasff Forthwith there was a rush for messengers, a lighting of alarm fires and a press of captains for their ships. Only Sir Frances Drake remained unconcerned. There was time, he observed, both to win the game and beat the Spaniards. So aiming their bowls very carefully and coolly they finished what Hallam reckons the “best and bravest match that ever was scored.” The royal navy, augjnented now by several times its number of armed merchantmen, had got together a fleet of 191 vessels. The bitterly punished but still indomitable Dutch sent some help from Holland. The largest vessel’of all was the Triumph, measuring 1,100 tons. The number of men was slightly over 17,000. Howard, commanding, was himself a Catholic, but though Philip proclaimed his cause the cause of the church against the heretic, Howard and all the other English Catholics remained splendidly loyal. Against them Philip sent a force the tremendous extent of which is given by Hakluyt. The vessels numbered 150, no less than 64 of them galleons, which Hakluyt says were of “an huge bignesse and of marvellous force and so high that they resembled great castles.” Manning the fleet were 8,000 sailors, 2,088 slaves and 20,000 soldiers, besides- nobles and gentlemen, all under command of the duke of Medina Sidonia. At Dunkirk, the great Spanish general, Farnese, was collecting another fleet for the transport o$ troops to England as soon as the armada should win the command of the seas. “The Invincible Armada” as the Spaniards termed it, entered the Channel, headed for Plymouth In the hope of surprising the English, found Howard sallying forth to meet it, and stood off for Dunkirk. Howard first sighted his enemy on Saturday, the 20th of July. Letting the great fleet pass, he followed, harrying it so severely that the Spaniards lost several ships. Medina Sidonia at last brought his ships to anchor in Calais roadstead, his larger craft lying in the outer circle. Howard dared not attack at close quarters, since his vessels were much inferior in tonnage and In ordinance, while, as Sir Wallace Raleigh says, “the Spaniard had an army on board him and Howard had none.” However on the night of the 29th he sent In eight fireships, so alarming the "Spaniards that they cut their cables abd put to sea. - One of the largest galeasses fouled another and went ashore. In the confusion the rest of the fleet became badly scattered so that in the morning the feat of reassembling in fleet formation was most difficult. Now was the opportunity of the English to attack on something like equal terms. Drake and Fener were the first to tackle their cumbersome foes. Then came Fenton, Southwell, Burton and the rest, with the lord admiral plunging in himself. While the action was that of detached vessels rather than squadrons, It was general and It was furiously hot. Drake was hulled no less than 40 times and his cabin was shot out from under him. The shot of a' demiculverin landed on the dinner table of the earl of Northumberland. But the English ships were the smarter sailors, the English got the weather gauge and they kept the vessels in a smother of smoke and flame as they, smote the unwieldy Spanish hulls, d'4 the decks of which huddled the great mass of soldiery, worse than useless in this action, where the English simply would not come to close quarters and fight the matter out with boarders. Sir Martin Frobisher was at one time in action with no leas than four of the enemy’s vessels. Drake sank a galleon which took to the bottom with her no less than "1,000 men. His formation broken, his ships shattered, the dukei of Medina Sidonia was drjven past Dunkirk, where lay the flotilla of Farnese hopelessly imprisoned by Justin-

ius and his Dutch blockaders. Before! a southerly breeze the Spaniard ran for| the north, abandoning the effort to gaim command of the seas*and hoping only to round Scotland and make his way: back home, ___ 2 - The rest is a pitiful tale. The English followed until August 2, their gun* thundering and their hearts exulting as. now and then a tall ship plunged beneath the waves. Then perceiving an apparent shift of the Spanish course toward Norway, and.being themselves well nigh out of ammunition they thought it best, ip the words of Drake,, to “leave them to those boisterous and uncouth northern seas.” The weather that summer was? almost a succession of gales. The clumsy Spanish ships were hard put to it to keep afloat. Many of them foundered at sea with all on board. At least are known to have gone ashore on the coast of Ireland, where the Irish either put the survivors to the sword or sent them with halters round their neck* to Elizabeth at London. Of all the magnificent fleet which had put to sea with such pageantry and pride less than 50 craft succeeded in making their way back to Spanish ports. Philip’s dream of world conquest was at an end. Not so much as a single English pinnace had the great armada sunk. England and the seas about her were to remain free and unconquered. The sea kings of Britain had saved her and in truth singed the beard of the king of Spain. Drake sleeps deep in Nombre Dois bay. His drum still hangs in Plymouth. Hoe and England has his promise: “If the Dons sight Devon, I’ll leave the port of heaven And we’ll drum them up the Channel As we drummed them long ago.”