of Don Diego Tellez Enriquez,[1] in spite of her injuries, made shift to follow us. The duke collected his fleet, and the enemy did the same.
"The duke ordered boats to go to bring away the people from the San Felipe and San Mateo; and by this means all the people were taken out of the San Mateo, but Don Diego Pimentel declined to leave the ship, and sent Don Rodrigo de Vivero and Don Luis Vanegas to the duke to beg him to send some one to see if it were not possible to save her; whereupon the duke sent a pilot and a diver from this galleon,[2] though there was much risk in sparing the latter; yet in consequence of the lateness of the hour and of the sea being very heavy, they could not reach the San Mateo, and only saw her at a distance, drifting towards Zeeland.[3]
"The galleon San Felipe got alongside the hulk Doncella,[4] into which all her people had made their way, when Don Francisco, who was on board of her, heard a cry that the hulk was sinking. Upon this, Captain Juan Poza de Santiso leapt back into the San Felipe, as did also Don Francisco de Toledo,[5] which was a great mishap, for the hulk was not indeed sinking; and Don Francisco was carried in the San Felipe towards Zeeland,[6] while the duke understood that he and all his people were safe on board the hulk Doncella. The sea was so high that nothing more could be done; nor could the damage done to the flagship by great shot be repaired, so that she ran risk of being lost.[7]
"That day the duke had desired to turn on the enemy with the whole of the Armada, rather than leave the Channel, but the pilots told him that this was impossible, because with sea and wind setting upon the coast direct from the north-west, it was absolutely necessary either to go into the North Sea or to let the entire Armada drive on to the shoals. Thus, leaving the Channel was inevitable. Moreover, nearly all the best ships were unfit, and unable to resist longer, firstly on account of the damage which they had received,[8] and secondly because they had no shot for their guns."
The battle off Gravelines was really the decisive action of the campaign. The direction of the wind, which put the Spaniards on a lee shore, was most favourable for the tactics which Howard had pursued from the beginning. His policy was to concentrate ships upon stragglers lying to leeward of him, and to cripple or cut them off. Howard, however, did not at once grasp the nature of his
- ↑ San Juan de Sicilia.
- ↑ The flagship San Martin.
- ↑ She made a point between Sluis and Ostend, and on July 31st she was attacked there by three men-of-war, and, after a two hours' fight, surrendered. Holland, lvi. Borlas to Walsyngham. She and the San Felipe appear to have been taken by ships of North Holland, under Count Justinus of Nassau, assisted by a few English small craft. Kyllygrew to Walsyngham.
- ↑ "La urca Doncella."
- ↑ Preferring, if he must die, to perish with his own ship. Duro, doc. 168.
- ↑ The San Felipe drove ashore on July 31st, between Ostend and Nieuport, whither the officers escaped. Both the San Felipe and the San Mateo were taken into Flushing.
- ↑ Vanegas says that she was struck one hundred times, but only mentions twelve soldiers as killed and twenty as wounded. Duro, doc. 185, p. 392.
- ↑ The losses in men are put by Vanegas at six hundred killed and eight hundred wounded. Duro, doc. 168, p. 263. Rich. Tomson, writing on July 30th, says: "Of the one hundred and twenty-four sail that they were in Calais Road, we cannot now find by any account above eighty-six ships and pinnaces." S. P. Dom. ccxiii. 67. The English losses in men, apart from losses by sickness, do not appear to have exceeded sixty in the whole campaign. Fenner to Walsyngham, S. P. Dom, ccxiv. 27.
