Philip had not completed his preparations before Sir
Francis Drake sailed into Cadiz harbor and destroyed a vast amount of naval
stores and shipping. This exploit, which Drake called "singeing the king
of Spain's beard," delayed the expedition for a year. The "Invincible
Armada" [30] set out at last in 1588 A.D. The Spanish vessels, though
somewhat larger than those of the English, were inferior in number, speed, and
gunnery to their adversaries, while the Spanish officers, mostly unused to the
sea, were no match for men like Drake, Frobisher, and Raleigh, the best
mariners of the age. The Armada suffered severely in a nine-days fight in the
Channel, and many vessels which escaped the English guns met shipwreck off the
Scotch and Irish coasts. Less than half of the Armada returned in safety to
Spain.
[30] Armada was a Spanish name for any armed fleet.
ENGLISH SEA-POWER
England in the later Middle Ages had been an important
naval power, as her ability to carry on the Hundred Years' War in France amply
proved. But in the sixteenth century she was greatly over-matched by Spain,
especially after the annexation of Portugal added the naval forces of that
country to the Spanish fleets. The defeat of the Armada not only did great harm
to the navy and commerce of Spain; it also showed that a new people had arisen
to claim the supremacy of the ocean. Henceforth the English began to build up
what was to be a sea-power greater than any other known to history.
