19 - Sir Francis Drake by Julian Corbett

Join British naval historian Julian Stafford Corbett as he delves into the thrilling life of Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596). From humble beginnings as a farmers son to becoming Queen Elizabeths most formidable privateer and daring naval commander, Drakes journey is one of adventure and audacity. In search of the gold and silver of Spanish Peru, he bravely navigated the treacherous waters of Cape Horn, enduring losses of both men and ships in the relentless battles against nature. After seizing a treasure ship from the astonished Spaniards, he became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. As King Philip of Spain gathered his formidable Armada, Drake showcased the power of a well-strategized naval force, crippling the enemys trade and finances. Corbett captures the essence of Drake, noting that he stemmed the tide of the Spanish Empire at its fullest flood. Prepare to be captivated by this tale of courage, cunning, and maritime mastery.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section nineteen of Sir Francis Drake by Julian Corbett. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Pamela
and Nagami, Chapter eleven, The Battle of gauvelin part one.
The old story goes that the fatal Tidings found Drake
on Plymouth Hoe playing bowls with the great officers of

(00:23):
the fleet. He was out maneuvered. The surprise was complete,
but he did not stir or start of all that
gallant company. None knew so well as he all that
the Tidings meant. But in the jovial face, ruddy and
clear eyed as ever, there was no sign of the
anxiety beneath. His fleet lay huddled in port at the

(00:46):
mercy of the Spanish fire ships. There was not a
moment to lose, but hurry would spoil all, and he
would not budge. There was time, he said, to play
the game and beat the Spaniards too, born leader of men,
that he was his genius. For a timely Bravado taught
him the value of such a speech to quiet panic

(01:08):
for the tremendous effort he sow at hand. For there
was but one thing that could save the fleet. It
must be got out of harbor before the morning, and
then the almost hopeless struggle would begin. Well nigh incredible
as the feet may seem, it was accomplished during the
night in the teeth of the wind. Nearly all the

(01:30):
fleet was warped out with the utmost difficulty and consummate seamanship.
On Saturday morning, rainhead was weathered, and in rain and mist,
the fleet began beating to the westward, close along the coast,
to try and steal the wind from the Spaniards. So
thick was the weather that it was not till the
afternoon that the fleets had sight of one another. Then

(01:53):
to the masthead of the Great San Martin, the Captain
General of the Ocean Sea, raised the blessed standard of
the Crusade. On one side was the Crucified Redeemer, on
the other the Holy Mother. Three solemn guns boomed out,
and as the sound rolled through the great Armada, every
man fell down and prayed to Christ for victory against

(02:15):
the enemies of his holy faith. Then two along the
misty shore where Drake's men toiled, were muttered, unrecorded orisons,
without ceremony and without prostration. They were crusaders too. Their
faith was as deep, their worship as devout. But the
Puritans hauled on their bow lines as they prayed. There

(02:37):
was need for them to aid the Lord. The armada
was edging inshore, very close, but closer still the arch
enemy of the Holy Faith crept on in the wet
mists to complete his maneuver. Fainter and fainter sank the wind,
and heavier fell the rain. As Drake wrestled with the weather,

(02:57):
the chance of success was desperate. Indeed, in those days
the best of ships could not sail within six points
of the wind, and at every tack the countless sails
on the horizon loomed clearer and closer as they crept
on before the dying breeze. Yet on the completion of
the movement before dawn, he saw the fate of England hang.

(03:18):
On the morrow, Plymouth would be at the Spaniard's mercy
unless the English, by getting the wind, could fall upon
their rear and force them to leeward of the threatened port.
Night fell, with the work still far from dune. An
hour after hour in the darkness were heard the cries
of the boastains and the wail of the rigging as
the ships went about continually. But when the curtain of

(03:41):
the night was lifted, it was upon a glorious scene
for England. A little west of Loo was the Great Armada,
lazily advancing still, and seawards right in the wind of
it were forming the two divisions of the English fleet.
Out of Plymouth was sailing another squadron, which, as it
passed boldly across the Spaniard's front, fired on the leading ships,

(04:04):
and then, going about, joined the bulk of the fleet
to windward. Then, in loose order, Howard and Drake bore down.
Anticipating that Sidonia, with his superior numbers and tonnage, would
take the offensive. They had resolved to attempt nothing but
to harass his advance and cut off stragglers. But no
sooner were they within range than they recognized how hard

(04:25):
was the task before them. Far from attempting Plymouth, the
Armada received them in the crescent formation and continued its
way up the channel, unmoved by their fire. So well
were the Spaniards disposed, and such splendid order did they keep,
that it was impossible for the English to come to
close quarters without danger of losing The wind compelled to

(04:47):
fight at long range. It was in vain that they
directed the whole weight of their medal upon the port
division of the Spaniard's line, and tried, by crowding it
upon the center to break up their unassailable formation. Sidonia's
best advisers knew well their weakness, and Drake too saw
it at a glance. The fleet of Spaniards, he hurriedly

(05:08):
scrawled on the despatch that was sent to Warrene Seymour,
are somewhat above a hundred sails, many great ships, but
truly I think not half of them men of war.
He was right. The Armada was not a fleet of
warships free to take the offensive as it would. Philip,
still less than Elizabeth, had grasped the importance of commanding

(05:29):
the sea. Instead of being a fighting machine of overwhelming power.
His great Armada was in reality the convoy of an
unwieldy mass of transports and storeships, and Sidonia's orders were
to escort it straight to Margate, and not to risk
an action with the combined English fleet till he was
safely at his destination. But though nothing could tempt Sidonia

(05:51):
from his defensive attitude, most of his flag officers were
all on fire to fight. Their chivalry was slow to
learn the lesson which Drake so suddenly had taught both
King and subject. They could not believe that their long
unquestioned supremacy at sea was gone, and at last, Don
Juan Martinez de Ricalde in the Santana, who commanded the

(06:13):
Port division, as he felt himself being forced into the center,
was galled into turning on his foes. In a moment,
he was surrounded by the van of Drake's division. The
Revenge herself was there, conspicuous with an extravagant pennant and
banner on her mizzen, and fighting almost a grappling distance.

(06:34):
Only one vessel could get to Ricalde's support, for as
his flag officers bore up to relieve him, they were
received by an overwhelming fire from Howard. So hot grew
the fight, and so smartly was ship after ship brought
to bear on the isolated Spaniards that at last Sidonia
himself was compelled to come up into the wind to

(06:54):
save them. Howard signaled to shear off and for the
rest of the day in order to Cabracalde while he
refitted his shattered flagship. Sidonia kept the English, busy with
maneuvers for the wind, so ended the memorable Sunday. Little
enough had been done except to show the superior activity
of the English ships and the greater rapidity of their fire.

(07:18):
They found that under courses only they could outsail the
Spanish galleons, and could easily pour in three broadsides to
the enemy's one. Still, the Armada was almost untouched at nightfall. Sidonia,
having reformed his battleships, was pursuing his way up channel
after the storeships and transports as majestically as ever, and

(07:39):
the seamen were grumbling that the onset had been more
coldly done than became the credit of the English navy.
Drake saw that the tactics of the past day would
never do. It was clear that Sidonia meant to avoid
an action and act purely on the defensive till he
had joined hands with Parma. Had the contest begun off

(08:01):
the Spanish coast, as Drake had desired, a series of
harassing engagements might have succeeded. But now there was no time.
The two Spanish forces were but a few days asunder,
and at all hazards, they must not be permitted to unite.
Ere the light faded. Therefore the flag of Council was
flying on the revenge, and when the flag officers were assembled,

(08:24):
Drake and those who supported him urged that a great
effort should be made without a moment's delay. But right
or wrong, Howard lacked the daring of the seamen. He
could not bring himself to risk the fleet, the only
hope of his unready country, and indeed the risk was great.
Every ship grappled by a Spaniard was doomed, and lacking

(08:46):
the old hand's implicit faith in the power of English
seamanship to elude the danger, Howard would not give way.
With the discretion for which he cannot be blamed, he
resolved to continue the tactics of the past day until
his whole force was concentrated by a junction with Seymour
and Winter in the Straits of Dover, and by the
arrival of the reinforcements he expected. He was determined not

(09:10):
to fight a general action, but to rest content with
retarding the Spanish advance till the Gales returned for their discomfiture.
Still bent, however, as we may well believe, on having
his own way, Drake could console himself that As vice
admiral of the combined fleet, the van of the pursuit
was his. The captains had orders to follow his cresset light, and,

(09:32):
with the wind freshening and veering to west northwest, he
led the chase of the Spanish stern lanterns. Under easy sail,
he clung upon their heels till in the middle of
the night he was aware of some strange sails near
him which were bearing a different course, And, impressed as
he was with the way the Spanish fleet had been
handled during the day, he was suddenly seized with the

(09:55):
idea that they were weathering him in the dark. Something
at any ri was wrong, and with characteristic decision, he
felt he must get to the bottom of it in accordance. Therefore,
with the naval practice of the time in such cases,
and nothing loath perhaps to mislead the commander he could
not direct, he immediately extinguished his light, and, accompanied only

(10:17):
by his tender, stood with the strangers. Having satisfied himself
that they were but a few German merchant men seeking convoy,
Drake at once gave up the chase and let them go. Meanwhile, however,
his maneuver had thrown the English fleet into confusion. Howard,
taking the Spanish light for Drake's, held on his course.

(10:39):
Four or five of his divisions did the same. The rest,
at a loss what to do, struck sail, and when
day broke the Revenge found herself alone save for a
huge galleon drifting within a few cables length of her.
It was none other than Nuestra Signora del Rosario, the
flagship of Don Pedro de Valdes, Captain General of the

(11:01):
and Luthian Squadron and one of the finest officers in
the fleet. In trying to assist a ricalde he had
fallen a victim to Sedonia's rigid formation, which, though well
enough before the wind, too often led to collisions if
any maneuvers were attempted. Drake at once summoned her to surrender,

(11:21):
but though she had lost her bowsprit and foremast, she
had hitherto beaten off every assailant, and honorable conditions were demanded.
The English admiral was in a hurry. He wanted to
overtake his division. He was Drake, he said, and had
no time to parley, And at the sound of the
great name, Baldez struck without another word, He and forty

(11:45):
of his officers were taken on board the Revenge, where
they ransacked Mythology to find adequate compliments for their captor's
prowess and generosity. Proud of his reputation, Drake loaded them
with a princely hospitality, while his officer took possession of
their treasure of some fifty thousand ducats. Then, sending the
galleon with the prize crew into Dartmouth, he went on

(12:07):
his way with his prisoners to overtake the Lord Admiral.
By this time Howard was far ahead, so closely indeed
had he followed the lights which he took for his lieutenants,
that at break of day he had found himself amongst
the rearmost ships of the Spaniards. Knowing as we do
Drake's persistent methods of getting his way when persuasion failed,

(12:29):
it is impossible not to suspect him of a hope,
if not of an intention, of entrapping Howard into a
general action by his wayward maneuver. But in that case
he was disappointed, for so light was the wind, and
so scattered the fleet, that it was four in the
afternoon before the ships had closed up and By the
time Drake arrived on the scene, the Lord Admiral had

(12:51):
extricated himself without fighting, and an attack was no longer possible.
All that Howard and Hawkins had been able to do
was to take possession of the flagship of the Geebusco
and Squadron, which had been shattered by an explosion in
its powder magazine and abandoned. Otherwise, the Armada was as
strong as ever, and to make matters worse, Sedonia had

(13:12):
taken advantage of the respite to reorganize his force. Taught
by yesterday's experience the weakness of the Crescent formation in
face of so nimble an enemy, he united and reinforced
his two wings and formed them into a rear guard,
while he himself, with the galleases and the transports and storeships,
formed a van division in this formation. As Monday drew

(13:35):
to an end, the Armada was lying but calmed off Portland.
Towards sunset. The wind had died away entirely, and thus
another precious day was gone and nothing done. The moon
rose clear and bright and mirrored on the glassy sea.
The two fleets lay facing each other, scarce A cannon
shot apart. The English were spread motionless in a long

(13:59):
broken line at the mercy of the enemy's ard ships.
It was the hour for the galleases, and from the
extreme right of the Armada, where they lay in all
the pomp of their swinging oars, they came striding over
the moonlit waters upon an isolated vessel of the English.
But at that moment troubled patches began to darken the

(14:20):
shining surface of the sea. Sails began to shake themselves
for the coming work, and in a few minutes a
smart breeze had robbed Galleases of their prey. The doomed
ship was saved, but the wind was coming from the northeast,
and the Spaniards at the weather gage. The English at
once led off with a dash straight inshore to try

(14:41):
and get round the enemy's right Sdonia to parry the movement,
stood in two, with his Motley division trailing after him,
and signaled to the rear guard to follow. But no
sooner was the admiral's move taken up than the English
fleet was round again and standing to the eastward on
the opposite tack, threatening to turn the Spaniards left by

(15:01):
the change of direction. Drake, with the starboard division was
now leading, closely followed by the Lord Admiral, and as
they strove to pass to windward, the fighting rearguard of
the Armada, which by Sodonia's inshore movement was now on
its left, turned suddenly upon them. A hot action was
the immediate result, and at a distance so close that

(15:23):
the English ships were in constant danger of being boarded.
One was only saved by the Lord Admiral boldly offering
its assailant a chance a boarding his flagship, and he
himself was in imminent danger till he was rescued by
Drake's Vice Admiral. To abide such an attack from the
windward was rank heresy to the new tactics of Drake's school,

(15:43):
and nimbly disengaging the whole English fleet sprang its luff
and ran large out to sea to deprive the enemy
of his chance of boarding. After it, the Spaniard's rear
guard labored straggling more and more every length it advanced,
far from being defeated. As the Spaniards thought, the English
were fast doing what it seemed almost hopeless. Sodonia's attempt

(16:06):
to follow their rapid doubling had broken his solid phalanx
to pieces. Far away to windward was his flagship, toiling
after his chasing rear guard. Farther still behind him were
the galleases, vainly struggling with the current, and the Portland
race to keep their positions in his wake, And scattered
confusedly over the sea were groups of transports and victualers,

(16:28):
trying to regain the shelter of the battleships. As the
day advanced, every hour improved the English prospects, for the
wind was going slowly round with the sun. For a time,
they contented themselves by luffing up continually to the liver
broadsides on their pursuers, and tempt them to straggle farther.
But at last the wind had veered far enough to

(16:49):
give them the weather gage, and with one accord, they
swept relentlessly upon the Racald's flagship, aware that it was
still trying to recover from the punishment its boldness had
met with On Sunday. The whole Spanish rear guard bore
up one by one to the rescue, and that with
the greatest devotion for each ship as it came into

(17:10):
action was the victim of a concentrated fire. Sidonia, in
like manner, was bearing up with his squadron too, when
his flag captain pointed out to him that away to
Leeward the transports and storeships were in sore trouble. The galleases,
it was evident, could not protect them. They had given
up the attempt to follow their leader's flag, but their

(17:33):
attention was fully engaged by the Triumph, the finest vessel
in the English Navy, and the flagship of Frobisher. He
had got left to Leeward too, but was now bravely
entertaining the galleases, while Edward Fenton in the Merry Rose
and several chartered ships of drakes and the London squadrons
were improving the occasion around him. End of Section nineteen