September 2, 2025 • 30 mins
Step back into the dawn of American history with Elizabethan Sea-Dogs, where the spirit of the citizen, colonist, and pioneer comes alive! This captivating exploration reveals the daring adventurers of the Elizabethan era who paved the way for future generations in the New World. Under the brilliant leadership of Sir Francis Drake, the first of the modern admirals, English sailors claimed their dominion over the sea. Known as Sea-Dogs, they opened the gateway for explorers and settlers seeking their fortunes in America. Discover how this century of maritime quests and naval warfare laid the foundations for Anglo-American history and secured the path for countless pioneers eager to carve out their destinies.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter eight of Elizabethan Sea Dogs by William Wood. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter eight Drake
clips the Wings of Spain. For three years after Drake
had been debbed Sir Francis by the Queen, he was
the hero of every class of Englishmen but two the
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extreme Roman Catholics who wanted Mary, Queen of Scots, and
the merchants who were doing business with Portugal and Spain.
The Marian opposition to the general policy of England persisted
for a few years longer, but the merchants, who were
the inheritors of centuries of commercial intercourse with England's new enemies,
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were soon to receive a shock that completely changed their minds.
They were themselves one of the strongest factors that made
for a war in the Knati problem now to be
solved at the cannon's mouth, because English trade was seeking
new outlets in every direction and was beating hard against
every door that foreigners shut in its face. These merchants
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would not, however, support the war party till they were
forced to, as they still hoped to gain by other
means what only war could win. The year that Drake
came home, one thousand, five hundred eighty Philip at last
got hold of a sea going fleet, the eleven big
Portuguese galleons taken when Lisbon fell, with the Portuguese ships,
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sailors and over sea possessions, with more galleons under construction
at Santander in Spain, and with the galleons of the
Indian Guard built by the Great Menendez to protect New Spain.
With all this performed or promised, Philip began to feel
as if the hour was at hand when he could
do to England what she had done to him. In
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one thousand, five hundred eighty three, Santa Cruz, the best
Spanish admiral since the death of Menendez, proposed to form
the nucleus of the Great Armada out of the fleet
with which he had just broken down, the last vestige
of Portuguese resistance in the Azores. From that day on,
the idea was never dropped. At the same time, Elizabeth
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discovered the Paris plot between Mary and Philip and the
Catholics of France, all of whom were bent on her destruction.
England stood to arms, but false ideas of naval defense
were uppermost in the Queen's Council, no attempt was made
to strike a concentrated blow at the heart of the
enemy's fleet in his own waters. Instead of this, the
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English ships were carefully divided among the three squadrons meant
to defend the approaches to England, Ireland and Scotland, because,
as the Queen and council sagely remarked, who could be
expected to know what the enemy's point of attack would be.
The fact is that, when wielding the forces of the
fleet and army, the Queen and most of her non
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combatant councilors never quite reached that supreme point of view
from which the greatest statesmen see exactly where civil control
ends and civilian interference begins. Luckily for England, their mistakes
were once more covered up by a turn of the
international kaleidoscope. No sooner had the immediate danger of a
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great combined attack on England passed away than Elizabeth returned
to Drake's plan for a regular raid against New Spain,
though it had to be one that was not designed
to bring on war in Europe. Drake, who was a
member of the Navy board charged with the reorganization of
the fleet, was to have command the ships and men
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were ready, but the time had not yet come. Next
year one thousand, five hundred and eighty four, Armadas and Barlow,
Sir Walter Rawley's to prospectors for the plantation of Virginia
were being delighted with the summer lands and waters of
what is now North Carolina. We shall soon hear more
of Raleigh and his vision of the West. But at
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this time a good many important events were happening in Europe,
and it is these that we must follow. First. William
of Orange, the Washington of Holland, was assassinated at Philip's instigation,
while plots to kill Elizabeth and place Mary on the
throne began to multiply. The agents were executed, while a
bond of association was signed by all Elizabeth's chief supporters,
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binding them to hunt down and kill all who tried
to kill her, a plain hint for Mary, Queen of
Scots to stop plotting or stand the consequences. But the
merchants trading with Spain and Portugal were more than ever
for keeping on good terms with Philip, because the failure
of the Spanish harvest had induced him to offer them
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special protection and encouragement if they would supply his country's
needs at once available ton of shipping was accordingly taken
up for Spain. The English merchant fleet went out, and
big profits seemed assured. But presently the Primrose, a tall
ship of London, came flying home to say that Philip
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had suddenly seized the merchandise, imprisoned the men, and taken
the ships and guns for use with the Great Armada.
That was the last straw. The peaceful traders now saw
that they were wrong and that the fighting ones were right,
and for the first time both could rejoice over the
clever trick by which John Hawkins had got his own
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again from Philip. In one thousand, five hundred and seventy one,
three years after Don Martin's treachery at San Juan de Ulua, Hawkins,
while commanding the Scilly Island squadron, led the Spanish ambassador
to believe that he would go over to the Spanish
cause in Ireland if his claims for damages were only
paid in full and all his surviving men in Mexico
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were set at home. The cold and crafty Philip swallowed
this tempting bait, sent them in home with Spanish dollars
in their pockets and paid Hawkins forty thousand pounds, the
worth of about two million dollars. Now. Then Hawkins used
the information he had picked up behind the Spanish scenes
to unrival the Redolphi plot for putting Mary on the throne.
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In one thousand, five hundred and seventy two, the year
of Saint Bartholomew, no Wonder Philip hated sea dogs, things
new and old. Having reached this pass, the whole of
England bar the Marians were eager for the Great Indies
Voyage of one thousand, five hundred and eighty five. Londoners
crowded down to wood Witch with great jollity to see
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off their own contingent on its way to join Drake's
flag at Plymouth Burry. Probably Shakespeare went down to for
that famous London merchantman, the Tiger to which he twice alludes,
once in Macbeth and once in Twelfth Night, was off
with this contingent. Such a private fleet had never yet
been seen, twenty one ships, eight smart pennises, and twenty
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three hundred men of every rank and rating. The Queen
was principal shareholder and managing director, but, as usual in
colonial attacks, intended for disavowal if necessity arose. No prospectus
or other document was published, nor were the shareholders of
this joint stock company known in any quite official way.
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It was the size of the fleet and the reputation
of the officers that made it a national affair. Drake,
now forty, was Admiral Frobisher of Northwest Passage fame was
Vice Nolly's, the Queen's own cousin. Rear Carl Lyle, a
famous general, commanded the troops and sailed in Shakespeare's Tiger.
Drake's old crew from the Golden hind came forward to
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a man among them, right, that excellent mathematician and engineer,
and Big Tom Moon, the lion of all boarding parties,
each in command of a ship. But Elizabeth was just
then weaving the threads of an unusually intricate diplomatic pattern.
So doubts and DeLay's orders encounter orders vexed Drake to
the last. Sir Philip Sidney too came down as a volunteer,
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which was another sore vexation, since his European fame would
have made him practically joint commander of the fleet, although
he was not a naval officer. At all, but he
had the good sense to go back, whereupon Drake, fearing
further interruptions from the court, ordered everything to be tumbled
into the nearest ships, and hurried off to sea under
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a press of sail. The first port of call was Vigo,
in the northwestern corner of Spain, where Drake's envoy told
the astonished governor that Elizabeth wanted to know what Philip
intended doing about embargoes. Now. If the governor wanted peace,
he must listen to Drake's arguments. If war well, Drake
was ready to begin at once. A three days storm
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interrupted the proceedings, after which the English intercepted the fugitive townsfolk,
whose flight showed that the government meant to make us stand.
Though he had said the embargo had been lifted and
that all the English prisoners were at liberty to go,
some English sailors, however, were still being held, so Drake
sent in an armed party and brought them off with
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a good pile of reprisal booty. Two. Then he put
to sea and made for the Spanish main by way
of the Portuguese African Islands. The plan of campaign drawn
up for Burley's information still exists. It shows that Drake,
the consummate raider, was also an admiral of the highest kind.
The items showing how long each part should take and
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what each place should yield are exact and interesting. But
it is in the relation of every part to every
other part and to the whole that the original genius
of the born commander shines forth in all its glory.
After taking San Domingo, he was to sack Margaret Rita,
Lahacha and Santa Marta, raising their fortifications as he left.
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Cartagena and Nombreak Dedios came next. Then Carlile was to
raid Panama with the help of the Maroons, while Drake
himself was to raid the coast of Honduras. Finally, with
reunited forces, he would take Havana and if possible, hold
it by leaving a sufficient garrison behind. Thus he would
paralyze New Spain by destroying all the points of junction
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along its lines of communication, just when Filks stood most
in need of its help for completing the Great Armado.
But like a meddlesome steeple chaser, Drake took a leap
in his stride during the preliminary canter before the Great race,
the wind being fouled for the Canaries, he went on
to the Cape Verde Archipelago and captured Santiago, which had
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been abandoned in Terra on the approach of the English Dragon.
That sinister hero of Lopa de Vegas epic onslaught La
Dragon Gontaya. As good luck would have it, Carlile marched
in on the anniversary of the Queen's accession, the seventeenth
of November, so there was a royal salute fired in
her Majesty's honor. By land in sea, no treasure was found.
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French privateers had sacked the place three years before and
had killed off everyone they caught. The Portuguese, however, were
not going to wait to meet the English Dragon Io.
The force that marched inland failed to unearth the governor,
so San Domingo, Santiago, and Porto Pria were all burnt
to the ground before the fleet bore away for the
West Indies. San Domingo, in Hispaniola Haiti was made in
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due course, but only after a virulent epidemic has seriously
thinned the ranks. San Domingo was the oldest town in
New Spain and was strongly garrisoned and fortified, but Carlile's
soldiers carried all before them. Drake battered down the seaward walls.
The Spaniards abandoned the citadel at night, and the English
took the whole place as a New Year's gift for
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one thousand, five hundred and eighty six. But again there
was no treasure. The Spaniards had killed off the Caribs
in war or in the mind, so that nothing was
now dug out. Moreover, the citizens were quite on their
guard against adventurers, and ready to hide what they had
in the most inaccessible places. Drake then put the town
up to ransom and sent out his own maroon boy
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servant to bring in the message from the Spanish officer
proposing terms. This Spaniard, hating all Maroons, ran his lance
through the boy and cantered away. The boy came back
with the last ounce of his strength and fell dead
at Drake's feet. Drake sent to say he would hang
two Spaniards every day if the murderer was not hanged
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by his own compatriots. As no one came, he began
with two friars. Then the Spaniards brought in the offender
and hanged him in the presence of both arms armies.
That episode cleared the air, and an interchange of courtesies
and hospitalities immediately followed, but no business was done. Drake
therefore began to burn the town bit by bit, till
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twenty five thousand ducats were paid. It was very little
for the capitol, but the men picked up a good
deal of loot in the process and vented their ultra
Protestant zeal on all the graven images that were not
worth keeping for sale. On the whole, the English were
well satisfied. They had taken all the Spanish ships and
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armament they wanted destroyed, the rest liberated over one hundred
brawny galley slaves, some Turks among them, all anxious for revenge,
and had struck a blow at Spanish prestige which echoed
back to Europe. Spain never hit her light under a bushel.
And here in the governor's palace was a huge a
scutcheon with a horse standing on the earth and pawing
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at the sky. The motto blazoned on it was to
the effect that the earth itself was not enough for Spain,
non subfixit orbis Drake's humor was greatly tickled, and he
and his officers kept asking the Spaniards to translate the
maato again and again. Delays and tempestuous headwinds induced Drake
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to let intermediate points alone and make straight for Cartagenia
on the South American mainland. Cartagena had been warned and
was on the alert. It was strong by both nature
and art. The garrison was good of its kind, though
the Spaniard's custom of fighting in quilted jackets instead of
armour put them out a disadvantage. This custom was due
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to the heat and to the fact that the jackets
were proof against the native arrows. There was an outer
and an inner harbor, with such an intricate and well
defended passage that no one thought Drake would dare go in,
but he did. Frobisher had failed to catch a pilot,
but Drake did the trick without one, to the utter
dismay of the Spaniards. After some more very clever maneuvers
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to distract the enemy's attention from the real point of attack,
Carlile and the soldiers landed under cover of the dark
and came upon the town where they were least expected.
By wading waist deep through the water, just out of
sight of the Spanish gunners. The entrenchments did not bar
the way in this unexpected quarter, but wine casks full
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of rammed earth had been hurriedly piled there in case
the mad English should make the attempt. Carlile gave the signal.
Goring's musketeers sprang forward and fired into the spaniards faces.
Then Samson's pikemen charged through, and a desperate hand to
hand fight ensuit. Finally the Spaniards broke, after Carlile had
killed their standard bear and Goring had wounded and taken
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their commander. The enemies ran pell Mell through the town
together till the English reformed in the plaza. Next day,
Drake moved in to attack the harbor fort, whereupon it
was abandoned and the whole place fell. But again there
was a dearth of booty. The Spaniards were getting shy
of keeping too many valuables where they could be taken,
so negotiations, emphasized by piecemeal destruction, went on till sickness
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and the lateness of the season put the English in
a sorry fix. The sack of the city had yielded
much less than that of San Domingo, and the men,
who were all volunteers to be paid out of plunder,
began to grumble at their ill success. Many had been wounded,
several killed Big faithful tom Moon among them, a hundred died,
more were ill. Two councils of war were held, one naval,
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the other military. The military officers agreed to give up
all their own shares to the men, but the naval officers,
who were poorer and who were also responsible for the
expenses of their vessels, could not concur. Finally, one hundred
and ten thousand ducats equivaled in purchasing power to nearly
three millions of dollars, were accepted. It was now impossible
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to complete the program or even to take Cabana, in
view of the renewed seale, wackness, the losses, and the
advance of the season. A further disappointment was experienced when
Drake just missed the treasure fleet by only half a day,
though through no fault of his own. Then, with constantly
diminishing numbers of effective men, the course was shaped for
the Spanish plantation of Saint Augustine in Florida. This place
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was utterly destroyed and some guns of money were taken
from it. Then the fleet stood north again till on
the ninth of June it found Raleigh's colony of Roanoke.
Ralph Lane, the governor, was in his fort on the island,
ready to brave it out. Drake offered a free passage
home to all the colonists, but Lane preferred staying and
going on with his surveys and plantation. Drake then filled
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up a storeship to leave behind with Lane, but a
terrific three day storm wrecked the storeship and damp the
colonist's enthusiasm so much that they persuaded Lane to change
his mind. The colonists embarked, and the fleet then bore
away for home. Though bulked of much it had expected
in the way of booty, reduced in strength by losses,
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and therefore unable to garrison any strategic point which would
threaten the life of New Spain, its purely naval work
was a true and glorious success. When he arrived at Plymouth,
Drake wrote immediately to Burley, my very good lord, there
is now a very great gap opened, very little to
the liking of the King of Spain. This very great
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gap on the American side of the Atlantic was soon
to be matched by the still greater gap Drake was
to make on the European side by destroying the Spanish
Armada and thus securing that mightiest of ocean highways, through
which the hosts of emigration afterwards poured into a land
endowed with the goodly heritage of English liberty and the
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English tongue. The year of Drake's return, one thousand, five
hundred and eighty six was no less troublous than its
immediate predecessors. The discovery of the Babington plot to assassinate
Elizabeth and to place Mary on the throne, supported by Scotland, France,
and Spain, proved Mary's complicity, produced an actual threat of
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war from France, and made the Pope and Philip gnash
their teeth with rage. The Roman Catholic allied powers had
no sufficient navy, and Philip's credit was at its lowest EBB.
After Drake's devastating raid, the English were exultant east and west,
for the true report of a worthy fight performed in
the voyage from Turkey by five ships of London against
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the eleven galleys and two frigates of the King of
Spain at Panta Laria within the Straits of Gibraltar Anno.
One thousand, five hundred and eighty six was going the
rounds and running a close second to Drake's West India achievement.
The ignorant and thoughtless both then and since mistook this
fight and another like it in one thousand, five hundred
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and ninety to mean that English merchantmen could beat off
Spanish men of war. Nothing of the kind. The English
levanters were heavily armed and admirably manned by well trained
fighting crews, and what these actions really proved, if proof
was necessary, was that galleys were no match for broadsides
from the proper kind of sailing ships. Turkey came into
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the problems of one thousand, five hundred eighty six and
more than named, for there was a vast diplomatic scheme
on foot to unite the Turks with such Portuguese as
would support Antonio the pretender to the throne of Portugal
and the rebellious Dutch against Spain. Catholic France and Mary
Stuart's Scotland Lester was in the Netherlands with an English
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army fighting indecisively losing Sir Philip Sidney and angering Elizabeth
by accepting the Governor generalship without her leave and against
her diplomacy, which now, as ever, was opposed to any
definite avowal that could possibly be helped. Meanwhile, the Great
Armada was working up its Strengthen Drake was commissioned to
weaken it as much as possible, but on the eighth
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of February one thousand, five hundred eighty seven, before he
could sail, Mary was at last beheaded, and Elizabeth was
once more entering on a tricky course of tortuous diplomacy
too long by half to follow. Here. As the Great
Crisis approached, it had become clearer and clearer that it
was a case of kill or be killed between Elizabeth
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and Mary, and that England could not afford to leave
Marian enemies in the rear when there might be a
vast Catholic alliance in the front. But as a sovereign
Elizabeth disliked the execution of any crowned head. As a
wily woman, she wanted to make the most of both sides,
and as a diplomatist she would not have open war
and direct operations going down to the root of the evil,
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if devious ways would do so. The peace party of
the Council prevailed again, and Drake's orders were changed. He
had been going as a lion. The peace party now
tried to send him as a fox. But he stretched
his instructions to their utmost limits, and even defied the
custom of the service by holding no council of war
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when deciding to swoop on Cadiz. As they entered the harbor,
the English saw sixty ships engaged in preparations for the
Great Armada. Many had no sails to keep the crews
from deserting. Others were waiting for their guns to come
from Italy. Ten galleys rowed out to protect them. The
weather and surroundings were perfect for these galleys, but as
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they came and on in line abreast, Drake crossed their
tee in line ahead with the shattering broadsides of four
Queen's ships, which soon sent them flying. Each galley was
the upright of the tea, each English sailing ship the
corresponding crosspiece. Then Drake attacked the shipping and wrecked it
right and left. Next morning, he led the pinnaises and
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boats into the inner harbor where they cut out the
big galleon belonging to Santa Cruz himself, the Spanish commander
in chief. Then the galleys got their chance again, an
absolutely perfect chance, because Drake's fleet was calmed at the
very worst possible place for sailing ships and the very
best possible place for the well ord galleys. But even
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under these extraordinary circumstances, the ships smashed the galleys up
with broadside fire and sent them back to cover. Then
the Spaniards towed some fire ships out, but the English
road for them threw grappling irons into them and gave
them a turn that took them clear. Then, for the
last time, the galleys came on, as bravely but as
uselessly as ever. When Drake sailed away, he left the
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shipping of Cadiz completely out of action for months to come.
Though fifteen sail escaped destruction in the Inner Harbor, his
own losses were quite insignificant. The next objective was Cape
Saint Vincent, so famous through centuries of naval history because
it is the great strategic salient thrust out into the
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Atlantique from the southwest corner of Europe, and thus commands
the flank approaches to and from the Mediterranean, to and
from the coast of Africa, and in those days the
route to and from New Spain by way of the a'zors. Here,
Drake had trouble with Burrow, his second in command, a
friend of cautious Burley and a man hide bound in
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the warfare of the past, a sort of English dawn.
Burrow objected to Drake's taking decisive action without the vote
of a Council of war. Remembering the terrors of Italian textbooks,
he had continued to regard the galleys with much respect
in the harbor of Cadiz, even after Drake had broken
them with ease. Finally, still clinging to the old ways
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of mere raids and reprisals, he stood aghast at the
idea of seizing Cape Saint Vincent and making it a
base of operations. Drake promptly put him under arrest. Sagre's castle,
commanding the roadstead of Cape Saint Vincent was extraordinarily strong.
The cliffs on which it occupied about one hundred acres,
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rose sheer two hundred feet all round, except at a
narrow and well defended neck, only two hundred yards across.
Drake led the stormers himself, while half his eight hundred
men kept up a continuous fire against every Spaniard on
the wall. The other half rushed piles of faggots in
against the oak and iron gate. Drake was foremost in
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this work, carrying faggots himself and applying the first match.
For two hours the fight went on, when suddenly the
Spaniards sounded a parley. Their commanding officer had been killed,
and the woodwork of the gate had taken fire. In
those days of garrison that would not surrender was put
to the sword when captured. So these Spaniards may well
be excused. Drake willingly granted them the honors of war,
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and so, even to his own surprise, the castle fell
without another blow. The minor forts nearby at once surrendered
and were destroyed, while the guns of Sagres were thrown
over the cliffs and picked up by the men below.
The whole neighboring coast was then swept clear of the
fishing fleet, which was the main source of supply used
for the Great Armada. The next objective was upon the
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headquarters of the Great Armada. One of the finest harbors
in the world, and then the best fortified of all.
Taking it was of course out of the question without
a much larger fleet accompanied by an overwhelming army. But
Drake recon ordered to good effect, learnt wrinkles that saved
him from disaster two years later, and retired after assuring
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himself that an armada which could not fight him then
could never get to England. During the same season, ship
fevers and all the other epidemics that dogged the old
sailing fleets and scourged them like the plague never waited long.
Drake was soon shorthanded. To add to his troubles. Burrow
sailed away from home, whereupon Drake tried him and his
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offerers by court martial and condemned them all to death.
This penalty was never carried out for reasons we shall
soon understand. Since no reinforcements came from home, Cape St.
Vin Sint could not be held any longer. There was, however,
one more stroke to make the great East India. The
Spanish treasure ship was coming home, and Drake made up
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his mind to have her off the Azores. He met
her coming towards him and dipping her colors again and
again to ask him who he was, but he would
put out no flag till we were within shot of her.
When we hanged out flag, streamers and pendants, which done,
we hailed her with cannon shot, and having shot her
through divers times, she shot at us. Then we began
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to ply her hotly, our fly boat, lightly armed, supply
vessel of comparatively small size, and one of our pinnises
lying athwart her haws across her bows at whom she
shot and through fireworks in syndiar missiles, but did them
no hurt, in that her ordnance lay so high over them.
Then she, seeing us ready to lay her aboard, range
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up alongside all of our ships, plying her so hotly
and resolutely determined to make short work of her, they
yielded to us. The Spaniards fought bravely, as they generally did,
but they were only naval amateurs compared with the trained
professional sea dogs. The voyage was now made in the
old sense of that term, for this prize was the
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greatest ship in all Portugal, richly laden to our happy joy.
The relative values than and now are impossible to fix,
because not only was one dollar the equivalent in most
ways of ten dollars now, but in view of the
smaller material scale on which men's lives were lived, these
ten dollars might themselves be multiplied by ten or more
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without producing the same effect as the multiplied sum would
now produce on international affairs. Suffice it to say that
the ship was worth nearly five million dollars of actual cash,
and ten twenty thirty or many more millions, if present
sums of money are to be considered relatively to the
national incomes of those poorer days. But better than Spice's
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jewels and gold were the secret documents which revealed the
dazzling profits of the new East India trade by sea.
From that time on, for the next twelve years, the
London merchants and their friends at court worked steadily for
official sanction in this most promising direction. At last, on
the thirty first of December one thousand, six hundred, the
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documents captured by Drake produced their result, and the East
India Company, by far the greatest corporation of its kind
the world has ever seen, was granted a royal charter
for exclusive trade. Drake may therefore be said not only
to have set the course for the United States, but
to have actually discovered the route leading to the Empire
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of India, now peopled by three hundred million subjects of
the British crown. So ended the famous campaign in one thousand,
five hundred and eighty seven, popularly known as the Singing
of King Philip's Beard. Beyond a doubt it was the
most consummate work of naval strategy which up to that
time all history records. End of Chapter eight
Chapter eight of Elizabethan Sea Dogs by William Wood. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter eight Drake
clips the Wings of Spain. For three years after Drake
had been debbed Sir Francis by the Queen, he was
the hero of every class of Englishmen but two the
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extreme Roman Catholics who wanted Mary, Queen of Scots, and
the merchants who were doing business with Portugal and Spain.
The Marian opposition to the general policy of England persisted
for a few years longer, but the merchants, who were
the inheritors of centuries of commercial intercourse with England's new enemies,
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were soon to receive a shock that completely changed their minds.
They were themselves one of the strongest factors that made
for a war in the Knati problem now to be
solved at the cannon's mouth, because English trade was seeking
new outlets in every direction and was beating hard against
every door that foreigners shut in its face. These merchants
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would not, however, support the war party till they were
forced to, as they still hoped to gain by other
means what only war could win. The year that Drake
came home, one thousand, five hundred eighty Philip at last
got hold of a sea going fleet, the eleven big
Portuguese galleons taken when Lisbon fell, with the Portuguese ships,
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sailors and over sea possessions, with more galleons under construction
at Santander in Spain, and with the galleons of the
Indian Guard built by the Great Menendez to protect New Spain.
With all this performed or promised, Philip began to feel
as if the hour was at hand when he could
do to England what she had done to him. In
(01:52):
one thousand, five hundred eighty three, Santa Cruz, the best
Spanish admiral since the death of Menendez, proposed to form
the nucleus of the Great Armada out of the fleet
with which he had just broken down, the last vestige
of Portuguese resistance in the Azores. From that day on,
the idea was never dropped. At the same time, Elizabeth
(02:15):
discovered the Paris plot between Mary and Philip and the
Catholics of France, all of whom were bent on her destruction.
England stood to arms, but false ideas of naval defense
were uppermost in the Queen's Council, no attempt was made
to strike a concentrated blow at the heart of the
enemy's fleet in his own waters. Instead of this, the
(02:38):
English ships were carefully divided among the three squadrons meant
to defend the approaches to England, Ireland and Scotland, because,
as the Queen and council sagely remarked, who could be
expected to know what the enemy's point of attack would be.
The fact is that, when wielding the forces of the
fleet and army, the Queen and most of her non
(03:01):
combatant councilors never quite reached that supreme point of view
from which the greatest statesmen see exactly where civil control
ends and civilian interference begins. Luckily for England, their mistakes
were once more covered up by a turn of the
international kaleidoscope. No sooner had the immediate danger of a
(03:23):
great combined attack on England passed away than Elizabeth returned
to Drake's plan for a regular raid against New Spain,
though it had to be one that was not designed
to bring on war in Europe. Drake, who was a
member of the Navy board charged with the reorganization of
the fleet, was to have command the ships and men
(03:45):
were ready, but the time had not yet come. Next
year one thousand, five hundred and eighty four, Armadas and Barlow,
Sir Walter Rawley's to prospectors for the plantation of Virginia
were being delighted with the summer lands and waters of
what is now North Carolina. We shall soon hear more
of Raleigh and his vision of the West. But at
(04:08):
this time a good many important events were happening in Europe,
and it is these that we must follow. First. William
of Orange, the Washington of Holland, was assassinated at Philip's instigation,
while plots to kill Elizabeth and place Mary on the
throne began to multiply. The agents were executed, while a
bond of association was signed by all Elizabeth's chief supporters,
(04:33):
binding them to hunt down and kill all who tried
to kill her, a plain hint for Mary, Queen of
Scots to stop plotting or stand the consequences. But the
merchants trading with Spain and Portugal were more than ever
for keeping on good terms with Philip, because the failure
of the Spanish harvest had induced him to offer them
(04:53):
special protection and encouragement if they would supply his country's
needs at once available ton of shipping was accordingly taken
up for Spain. The English merchant fleet went out, and
big profits seemed assured. But presently the Primrose, a tall
ship of London, came flying home to say that Philip
(05:14):
had suddenly seized the merchandise, imprisoned the men, and taken
the ships and guns for use with the Great Armada.
That was the last straw. The peaceful traders now saw
that they were wrong and that the fighting ones were right,
and for the first time both could rejoice over the
clever trick by which John Hawkins had got his own
(05:37):
again from Philip. In one thousand, five hundred and seventy one,
three years after Don Martin's treachery at San Juan de Ulua, Hawkins,
while commanding the Scilly Island squadron, led the Spanish ambassador
to believe that he would go over to the Spanish
cause in Ireland if his claims for damages were only
paid in full and all his surviving men in Mexico
(05:59):
were set at home. The cold and crafty Philip swallowed
this tempting bait, sent them in home with Spanish dollars
in their pockets and paid Hawkins forty thousand pounds, the
worth of about two million dollars. Now. Then Hawkins used
the information he had picked up behind the Spanish scenes
to unrival the Redolphi plot for putting Mary on the throne.
(06:22):
In one thousand, five hundred and seventy two, the year
of Saint Bartholomew, no Wonder Philip hated sea dogs, things
new and old. Having reached this pass, the whole of
England bar the Marians were eager for the Great Indies
Voyage of one thousand, five hundred and eighty five. Londoners
crowded down to wood Witch with great jollity to see
(06:46):
off their own contingent on its way to join Drake's
flag at Plymouth Burry. Probably Shakespeare went down to for
that famous London merchantman, the Tiger to which he twice alludes,
once in Macbeth and once in Twelfth Night, was off
with this contingent. Such a private fleet had never yet
been seen, twenty one ships, eight smart pennises, and twenty
(07:08):
three hundred men of every rank and rating. The Queen
was principal shareholder and managing director, but, as usual in
colonial attacks, intended for disavowal if necessity arose. No prospectus
or other document was published, nor were the shareholders of
this joint stock company known in any quite official way.
(07:29):
It was the size of the fleet and the reputation
of the officers that made it a national affair. Drake,
now forty, was Admiral Frobisher of Northwest Passage fame was
Vice Nolly's, the Queen's own cousin. Rear Carl Lyle, a
famous general, commanded the troops and sailed in Shakespeare's Tiger.
Drake's old crew from the Golden hind came forward to
(07:52):
a man among them, right, that excellent mathematician and engineer,
and Big Tom Moon, the lion of all boarding parties,
each in command of a ship. But Elizabeth was just
then weaving the threads of an unusually intricate diplomatic pattern.
So doubts and DeLay's orders encounter orders vexed Drake to
the last. Sir Philip Sidney too came down as a volunteer,
(08:15):
which was another sore vexation, since his European fame would
have made him practically joint commander of the fleet, although
he was not a naval officer. At all, but he
had the good sense to go back, whereupon Drake, fearing
further interruptions from the court, ordered everything to be tumbled
into the nearest ships, and hurried off to sea under
(08:36):
a press of sail. The first port of call was Vigo,
in the northwestern corner of Spain, where Drake's envoy told
the astonished governor that Elizabeth wanted to know what Philip
intended doing about embargoes. Now. If the governor wanted peace,
he must listen to Drake's arguments. If war well, Drake
was ready to begin at once. A three days storm
(08:58):
interrupted the proceedings, after which the English intercepted the fugitive townsfolk,
whose flight showed that the government meant to make us stand.
Though he had said the embargo had been lifted and
that all the English prisoners were at liberty to go,
some English sailors, however, were still being held, so Drake
sent in an armed party and brought them off with
(09:20):
a good pile of reprisal booty. Two. Then he put
to sea and made for the Spanish main by way
of the Portuguese African Islands. The plan of campaign drawn
up for Burley's information still exists. It shows that Drake,
the consummate raider, was also an admiral of the highest kind.
The items showing how long each part should take and
(09:42):
what each place should yield are exact and interesting. But
it is in the relation of every part to every
other part and to the whole that the original genius
of the born commander shines forth in all its glory.
After taking San Domingo, he was to sack Margaret Rita,
Lahacha and Santa Marta, raising their fortifications as he left.
(10:05):
Cartagena and Nombreak Dedios came next. Then Carlile was to
raid Panama with the help of the Maroons, while Drake
himself was to raid the coast of Honduras. Finally, with
reunited forces, he would take Havana and if possible, hold
it by leaving a sufficient garrison behind. Thus he would
paralyze New Spain by destroying all the points of junction
(10:27):
along its lines of communication, just when Filks stood most
in need of its help for completing the Great Armado.
But like a meddlesome steeple chaser, Drake took a leap
in his stride during the preliminary canter before the Great race,
the wind being fouled for the Canaries, he went on
to the Cape Verde Archipelago and captured Santiago, which had
(10:51):
been abandoned in Terra on the approach of the English Dragon.
That sinister hero of Lopa de Vegas epic onslaught La
Dragon Gontaya. As good luck would have it, Carlile marched
in on the anniversary of the Queen's accession, the seventeenth
of November, so there was a royal salute fired in
her Majesty's honor. By land in sea, no treasure was found.
(11:15):
French privateers had sacked the place three years before and
had killed off everyone they caught. The Portuguese, however, were
not going to wait to meet the English Dragon Io.
The force that marched inland failed to unearth the governor,
so San Domingo, Santiago, and Porto Pria were all burnt
to the ground before the fleet bore away for the
West Indies. San Domingo, in Hispaniola Haiti was made in
(11:40):
due course, but only after a virulent epidemic has seriously
thinned the ranks. San Domingo was the oldest town in
New Spain and was strongly garrisoned and fortified, but Carlile's
soldiers carried all before them. Drake battered down the seaward walls.
The Spaniards abandoned the citadel at night, and the English
took the whole place as a New Year's gift for
(12:03):
one thousand, five hundred and eighty six. But again there
was no treasure. The Spaniards had killed off the Caribs
in war or in the mind, so that nothing was
now dug out. Moreover, the citizens were quite on their
guard against adventurers, and ready to hide what they had
in the most inaccessible places. Drake then put the town
up to ransom and sent out his own maroon boy
(12:26):
servant to bring in the message from the Spanish officer
proposing terms. This Spaniard, hating all Maroons, ran his lance
through the boy and cantered away. The boy came back
with the last ounce of his strength and fell dead
at Drake's feet. Drake sent to say he would hang
two Spaniards every day if the murderer was not hanged
(12:49):
by his own compatriots. As no one came, he began
with two friars. Then the Spaniards brought in the offender
and hanged him in the presence of both arms armies.
That episode cleared the air, and an interchange of courtesies
and hospitalities immediately followed, but no business was done. Drake
therefore began to burn the town bit by bit, till
(13:12):
twenty five thousand ducats were paid. It was very little
for the capitol, but the men picked up a good
deal of loot in the process and vented their ultra
Protestant zeal on all the graven images that were not
worth keeping for sale. On the whole, the English were
well satisfied. They had taken all the Spanish ships and
(13:33):
armament they wanted destroyed, the rest liberated over one hundred
brawny galley slaves, some Turks among them, all anxious for revenge,
and had struck a blow at Spanish prestige which echoed
back to Europe. Spain never hit her light under a bushel.
And here in the governor's palace was a huge a
scutcheon with a horse standing on the earth and pawing
(13:55):
at the sky. The motto blazoned on it was to
the effect that the earth itself was not enough for Spain,
non subfixit orbis Drake's humor was greatly tickled, and he
and his officers kept asking the Spaniards to translate the
maato again and again. Delays and tempestuous headwinds induced Drake
(14:15):
to let intermediate points alone and make straight for Cartagenia
on the South American mainland. Cartagena had been warned and
was on the alert. It was strong by both nature
and art. The garrison was good of its kind, though
the Spaniard's custom of fighting in quilted jackets instead of
armour put them out a disadvantage. This custom was due
(14:36):
to the heat and to the fact that the jackets
were proof against the native arrows. There was an outer
and an inner harbor, with such an intricate and well
defended passage that no one thought Drake would dare go in,
but he did. Frobisher had failed to catch a pilot,
but Drake did the trick without one, to the utter
dismay of the Spaniards. After some more very clever maneuvers
(14:59):
to distract the enemy's attention from the real point of attack,
Carlile and the soldiers landed under cover of the dark
and came upon the town where they were least expected.
By wading waist deep through the water, just out of
sight of the Spanish gunners. The entrenchments did not bar
the way in this unexpected quarter, but wine casks full
(15:21):
of rammed earth had been hurriedly piled there in case
the mad English should make the attempt. Carlile gave the signal.
Goring's musketeers sprang forward and fired into the spaniards faces.
Then Samson's pikemen charged through, and a desperate hand to
hand fight ensuit. Finally the Spaniards broke, after Carlile had
killed their standard bear and Goring had wounded and taken
(15:44):
their commander. The enemies ran pell Mell through the town
together till the English reformed in the plaza. Next day,
Drake moved in to attack the harbor fort, whereupon it
was abandoned and the whole place fell. But again there
was a dearth of booty. The Spaniards were getting shy
of keeping too many valuables where they could be taken,
so negotiations, emphasized by piecemeal destruction, went on till sickness
(16:09):
and the lateness of the season put the English in
a sorry fix. The sack of the city had yielded
much less than that of San Domingo, and the men,
who were all volunteers to be paid out of plunder,
began to grumble at their ill success. Many had been wounded,
several killed Big faithful tom Moon among them, a hundred died,
more were ill. Two councils of war were held, one naval,
(16:32):
the other military. The military officers agreed to give up
all their own shares to the men, but the naval officers,
who were poorer and who were also responsible for the
expenses of their vessels, could not concur. Finally, one hundred
and ten thousand ducats equivaled in purchasing power to nearly
three millions of dollars, were accepted. It was now impossible
(16:56):
to complete the program or even to take Cabana, in
view of the renewed seale, wackness, the losses, and the
advance of the season. A further disappointment was experienced when
Drake just missed the treasure fleet by only half a day,
though through no fault of his own. Then, with constantly
diminishing numbers of effective men, the course was shaped for
the Spanish plantation of Saint Augustine in Florida. This place
(17:22):
was utterly destroyed and some guns of money were taken
from it. Then the fleet stood north again till on
the ninth of June it found Raleigh's colony of Roanoke.
Ralph Lane, the governor, was in his fort on the island,
ready to brave it out. Drake offered a free passage
home to all the colonists, but Lane preferred staying and
going on with his surveys and plantation. Drake then filled
(17:46):
up a storeship to leave behind with Lane, but a
terrific three day storm wrecked the storeship and damp the
colonist's enthusiasm so much that they persuaded Lane to change
his mind. The colonists embarked, and the fleet then bore
away for home. Though bulked of much it had expected
in the way of booty, reduced in strength by losses,
(18:06):
and therefore unable to garrison any strategic point which would
threaten the life of New Spain, its purely naval work
was a true and glorious success. When he arrived at Plymouth,
Drake wrote immediately to Burley, my very good lord, there
is now a very great gap opened, very little to
the liking of the King of Spain. This very great
(18:27):
gap on the American side of the Atlantic was soon
to be matched by the still greater gap Drake was
to make on the European side by destroying the Spanish
Armada and thus securing that mightiest of ocean highways, through
which the hosts of emigration afterwards poured into a land
endowed with the goodly heritage of English liberty and the
(18:49):
English tongue. The year of Drake's return, one thousand, five
hundred and eighty six was no less troublous than its
immediate predecessors. The discovery of the Babington plot to assassinate
Elizabeth and to place Mary on the throne, supported by Scotland, France,
and Spain, proved Mary's complicity, produced an actual threat of
(19:09):
war from France, and made the Pope and Philip gnash
their teeth with rage. The Roman Catholic allied powers had
no sufficient navy, and Philip's credit was at its lowest EBB.
After Drake's devastating raid, the English were exultant east and west,
for the true report of a worthy fight performed in
the voyage from Turkey by five ships of London against
(19:31):
the eleven galleys and two frigates of the King of
Spain at Panta Laria within the Straits of Gibraltar Anno.
One thousand, five hundred and eighty six was going the
rounds and running a close second to Drake's West India achievement.
The ignorant and thoughtless both then and since mistook this
fight and another like it in one thousand, five hundred
(19:52):
and ninety to mean that English merchantmen could beat off
Spanish men of war. Nothing of the kind. The English
levanters were heavily armed and admirably manned by well trained
fighting crews, and what these actions really proved, if proof
was necessary, was that galleys were no match for broadsides
from the proper kind of sailing ships. Turkey came into
(20:15):
the problems of one thousand, five hundred eighty six and
more than named, for there was a vast diplomatic scheme
on foot to unite the Turks with such Portuguese as
would support Antonio the pretender to the throne of Portugal
and the rebellious Dutch against Spain. Catholic France and Mary
Stuart's Scotland Lester was in the Netherlands with an English
(20:36):
army fighting indecisively losing Sir Philip Sidney and angering Elizabeth
by accepting the Governor generalship without her leave and against
her diplomacy, which now, as ever, was opposed to any
definite avowal that could possibly be helped. Meanwhile, the Great
Armada was working up its Strengthen Drake was commissioned to
weaken it as much as possible, but on the eighth
(20:57):
of February one thousand, five hundred eighty seven, before he
could sail, Mary was at last beheaded, and Elizabeth was
once more entering on a tricky course of tortuous diplomacy
too long by half to follow. Here. As the Great
Crisis approached, it had become clearer and clearer that it
was a case of kill or be killed between Elizabeth
(21:17):
and Mary, and that England could not afford to leave
Marian enemies in the rear when there might be a
vast Catholic alliance in the front. But as a sovereign
Elizabeth disliked the execution of any crowned head. As a
wily woman, she wanted to make the most of both sides,
and as a diplomatist she would not have open war
and direct operations going down to the root of the evil,
(21:40):
if devious ways would do so. The peace party of
the Council prevailed again, and Drake's orders were changed. He
had been going as a lion. The peace party now
tried to send him as a fox. But he stretched
his instructions to their utmost limits, and even defied the
custom of the service by holding no council of war
(22:00):
when deciding to swoop on Cadiz. As they entered the harbor,
the English saw sixty ships engaged in preparations for the
Great Armada. Many had no sails to keep the crews
from deserting. Others were waiting for their guns to come
from Italy. Ten galleys rowed out to protect them. The
weather and surroundings were perfect for these galleys, but as
(22:24):
they came and on in line abreast, Drake crossed their
tee in line ahead with the shattering broadsides of four
Queen's ships, which soon sent them flying. Each galley was
the upright of the tea, each English sailing ship the
corresponding crosspiece. Then Drake attacked the shipping and wrecked it
right and left. Next morning, he led the pinnaises and
(22:46):
boats into the inner harbor where they cut out the
big galleon belonging to Santa Cruz himself, the Spanish commander
in chief. Then the galleys got their chance again, an
absolutely perfect chance, because Drake's fleet was calmed at the
very worst possible place for sailing ships and the very
best possible place for the well ord galleys. But even
(23:07):
under these extraordinary circumstances, the ships smashed the galleys up
with broadside fire and sent them back to cover. Then
the Spaniards towed some fire ships out, but the English
road for them threw grappling irons into them and gave
them a turn that took them clear. Then, for the
last time, the galleys came on, as bravely but as
uselessly as ever. When Drake sailed away, he left the
(23:30):
shipping of Cadiz completely out of action for months to come.
Though fifteen sail escaped destruction in the Inner Harbor, his
own losses were quite insignificant. The next objective was Cape
Saint Vincent, so famous through centuries of naval history because
it is the great strategic salient thrust out into the
(23:50):
Atlantique from the southwest corner of Europe, and thus commands
the flank approaches to and from the Mediterranean, to and
from the coast of Africa, and in those days the
route to and from New Spain by way of the a'zors. Here,
Drake had trouble with Burrow, his second in command, a
friend of cautious Burley and a man hide bound in
(24:10):
the warfare of the past, a sort of English dawn.
Burrow objected to Drake's taking decisive action without the vote
of a Council of war. Remembering the terrors of Italian textbooks,
he had continued to regard the galleys with much respect
in the harbor of Cadiz, even after Drake had broken
them with ease. Finally, still clinging to the old ways
(24:32):
of mere raids and reprisals, he stood aghast at the
idea of seizing Cape Saint Vincent and making it a
base of operations. Drake promptly put him under arrest. Sagre's castle,
commanding the roadstead of Cape Saint Vincent was extraordinarily strong.
The cliffs on which it occupied about one hundred acres,
(24:53):
rose sheer two hundred feet all round, except at a
narrow and well defended neck, only two hundred yards across.
Drake led the stormers himself, while half his eight hundred
men kept up a continuous fire against every Spaniard on
the wall. The other half rushed piles of faggots in
against the oak and iron gate. Drake was foremost in
(25:14):
this work, carrying faggots himself and applying the first match.
For two hours the fight went on, when suddenly the
Spaniards sounded a parley. Their commanding officer had been killed,
and the woodwork of the gate had taken fire. In
those days of garrison that would not surrender was put
to the sword when captured. So these Spaniards may well
be excused. Drake willingly granted them the honors of war,
(25:37):
and so, even to his own surprise, the castle fell
without another blow. The minor forts nearby at once surrendered
and were destroyed, while the guns of Sagres were thrown
over the cliffs and picked up by the men below.
The whole neighboring coast was then swept clear of the
fishing fleet, which was the main source of supply used
for the Great Armada. The next objective was upon the
(26:00):
headquarters of the Great Armada. One of the finest harbors
in the world, and then the best fortified of all.
Taking it was of course out of the question without
a much larger fleet accompanied by an overwhelming army. But
Drake recon ordered to good effect, learnt wrinkles that saved
him from disaster two years later, and retired after assuring
(26:21):
himself that an armada which could not fight him then
could never get to England. During the same season, ship
fevers and all the other epidemics that dogged the old
sailing fleets and scourged them like the plague never waited long.
Drake was soon shorthanded. To add to his troubles. Burrow
sailed away from home, whereupon Drake tried him and his
(26:42):
offerers by court martial and condemned them all to death.
This penalty was never carried out for reasons we shall
soon understand. Since no reinforcements came from home, Cape St.
Vin Sint could not be held any longer. There was, however,
one more stroke to make the great East India. The
Spanish treasure ship was coming home, and Drake made up
(27:03):
his mind to have her off the Azores. He met
her coming towards him and dipping her colors again and
again to ask him who he was, but he would
put out no flag till we were within shot of her.
When we hanged out flag, streamers and pendants, which done,
we hailed her with cannon shot, and having shot her
through divers times, she shot at us. Then we began
(27:25):
to ply her hotly, our fly boat, lightly armed, supply
vessel of comparatively small size, and one of our pinnises
lying athwart her haws across her bows at whom she
shot and through fireworks in syndiar missiles, but did them
no hurt, in that her ordnance lay so high over them.
Then she, seeing us ready to lay her aboard, range
(27:47):
up alongside all of our ships, plying her so hotly
and resolutely determined to make short work of her, they
yielded to us. The Spaniards fought bravely, as they generally did,
but they were only naval amateurs compared with the trained
professional sea dogs. The voyage was now made in the
old sense of that term, for this prize was the
(28:08):
greatest ship in all Portugal, richly laden to our happy joy.
The relative values than and now are impossible to fix,
because not only was one dollar the equivalent in most
ways of ten dollars now, but in view of the
smaller material scale on which men's lives were lived, these
ten dollars might themselves be multiplied by ten or more
(28:30):
without producing the same effect as the multiplied sum would
now produce on international affairs. Suffice it to say that
the ship was worth nearly five million dollars of actual cash,
and ten twenty thirty or many more millions, if present
sums of money are to be considered relatively to the
national incomes of those poorer days. But better than Spice's
(28:52):
jewels and gold were the secret documents which revealed the
dazzling profits of the new East India trade by sea.
From that time on, for the next twelve years, the
London merchants and their friends at court worked steadily for
official sanction in this most promising direction. At last, on
the thirty first of December one thousand, six hundred, the
(29:12):
documents captured by Drake produced their result, and the East
India Company, by far the greatest corporation of its kind
the world has ever seen, was granted a royal charter
for exclusive trade. Drake may therefore be said not only
to have set the course for the United States, but
to have actually discovered the route leading to the Empire
(29:32):
of India, now peopled by three hundred million subjects of
the British crown. So ended the famous campaign in one thousand,
five hundred and eighty seven, popularly known as the Singing
of King Philip's Beard. Beyond a doubt it was the
most consummate work of naval strategy which up to that
time all history records. End of Chapter eight
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