The Spanish Armada 1588 (33)

1. What was the Spanish Armada?

The Spanish Armada was one part of a planned invasion of England by King Philip II of Spain. Launched in 1588, 'la felicissima armada', or 'the most fortunate fleet', was made up of roughly 150 ships and 18,000 men. Despite its state of the art make up and large numbers, it failed.

2. A galleon

3. Pretend you are Francis Drake and tell how you attacked the Armada

In 1587 we heard that the Spanish were amassing a fleet to attack our shores. We arranged for four of our ships to sail to Spain and see what was going on. We were four galleons, all the Queen's own ships. I was in the Elizabeth Bonaventur.. We left Plymouth in good Spring weather but by the time we rounded Galicia, northern Spain, it had turned foul. We knew that Sir Francis Walsingham was feeding false information to the Spanish so we didn't feel ourselves to be in danger though now near the Spanish coast. We decided to re-group after the storm and were joined by two Dutch ships. The Dutch had intelligence that the Spanish were gathering their ships in Cadiz, southern Spain. We needed to act quickly. We were able to sail into Cadiz at dusk. We flew no flags and were as silent as we coould be. The galleons in port were under the command of one Pedro de Acuña who initially sailed out to confront us but we pushed him back. The Spanish galleons proved no match for us though they tried to retaliate with gunfire from the shoreline. The battle went on all night and into the following day. We managed to severely damage about 25 of the ships. Some we looted, some we burnt and some we sunk. As I heard one of my crew say, we singed the King of Spain's beard that day. This pre-emptive strike put the whole project back a year and gave us precious time to prepare for invasion. When it eventually came we were more than ready. We harried them and drove them away with ease by the grace of God who sent a terrific storm at just the right time.