The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True Story of the Spanish Armada by Hanson Neil

Author:Hanson, Neil [Hanson, Neil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Fiction, War
ISBN: 9780307428301
Goodreads: 8039606
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 2003-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

The Heavens Thundered

At the end of the English council of war that evening, “dismissing each man to go aboard his own ship, His Lordship had appointed Sir Francis Drake to set the watch that night.” Under battle conditions, ships showed no lights after dark, and the lantern on the poop deck of Drake’s ship, Revenge, was to be the guiding light by which the rest would navigate. In the last of the evening light, the Margaret and John of London, a 200-ton privateer captained by John Fisher, came upon the crippled Rosario , still with her escort of ships. The Margaret and John’s officers claimed that “accompanied neither with ship, pinnace or boat of all our fleet” they went to the attack, and “the sudden approach of our ship” caused the other Spanish vessels to flee. By making that claim they were staking their right to a share in the spoils, but the captain of a galleass would hardly have been frightened by a privateer one-third the size of his own ship, and it must rather have been the fear of the rest of the English fleet bearing down out of the darkness that put the Rosario’s escort to flight.

As the crew of the Margaret and John looked over the apparently deserted ship, they kept to windward, “hard under sides of the ship . . . which by reason of her greatness and the sea being very much grown, we could not lay aboard without spoiling our own ship.” The Rosario ’s sails were furled, all lights were extinguished and she did not answer her helm. “Seeing not one man show himself nor any light appearing in her . . . we discharged 25 or 30 muskets into her cagework, at one volley, with arrows and bullet.” That fusillade provoked some return fire. “They gave us two great shot, whereupon we let fly our broadside through her, doing some hurt.” The privateer drew off a little but remained close to the crippled Spanish ship until around midnight, when, “fearing his Lordship’s displeasure if we should stay behind,” the Margaret and John sailed away to rejoin the English fleet.1

A crescent moon silvered the waters and threw intermittent light on the scene, but it was often obscured by cloud, and visibility was poor enough that when the light on the poop deck of the Revenge was abruptly extinguished, the lookouts on the Ark could see no trace of Drake’s ship. Lord Howard was called back on deck at once and eventually the lookouts caught sight of the glimmer of a light ahead, although at some distance from them. The Ark put on more sail to close the gap and, accompanied only by the Bear and the Mary Rose, resumed the silent pursuit. The remainder of the fleet “being disappointed of their light by reason that Sir Francis Drake left the watch to pursue certain hulks . . . lingered behind not knowing who to follow.” Only when the eastern sky was

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