August 19, 2025 • 15 mins
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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section twenty 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 Graveline, Part two.
Seeing the danger, the Duke signaled to his immediate following
to keep on to where the fight raged round the
(00:21):
crippled Saint Anna, while he himself went about and bore
down to support the galleases and protect his more defenseless charges.
The triumph was now in serious danger, Nor could the
English seamen, having once exposed the Armada's vulnerable point, permitted
to be covered again without a blow. Moreover, the continual
(00:43):
closing up of the scattered Spanish rear guard had rendered
the struggle round Ricalde too equal to suit Drake's ideas.
Once more, he and his fellows disengaged, and Sidonia suddenly
found himself alone between the transports and his rear guard,
with all the English battleships bearing down upon him. Having
(01:03):
reduced the Santana to such a wreck that Racalde was
compelled to transfer his flag, they were bent untreating as
hardly the Captain General of the Ocean Sea, with all
the Old world Chivalry of Spain. The Duke shortened sail
to await the attack, and for an hour endured alone
(01:24):
the whole fire of his enemy, as ship by ship
passed by and plunged its broadside into the great San Martin,
from its fortress, of the poop, from its castle, of
the prow, from its placidae atamas, and the waist. The
splinters shivered and split till the water poured in through
(01:44):
the shotholes. The rigging hung in ruin, and the holy
standard of the crusade was rent in twain. So they
left him and passed on to support Frobisher and gather
the fruit of Drake's bewildering tactics. Under all sail, the
Spanish battleships toiled to the rescue. But when as the
sun sank low, Sedonia had once more gathered up his
(02:07):
flock into a roundel, there were many that labored sorely, and.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Three were gone.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
It was a poor enough result for a hard fought action.
The English powder was spent, another day was gone, and
still the Armada looked almost as formidable as ever. Yet
the effect was deeper than it seemed. With no little alarm,
the Spanish officers had been shown the mobility of a
fleet formed line ahead, and its power of concentration on
(02:37):
weak points. It was the first dawn of those modern
tactics which Blake and Monk were to develop and Nelson
to perfect, and both sides recognized the great fact. The
Spaniard's hearts sank as they saw how ill adapted were
their floating fortresses for the new situation, and a bolder
(02:58):
purpose inspired Howard. On the morrow, though active operations were
confined to twice, compelling the Armada to stop its advance
and form line of battle to its rear, a most
important step was taken after the morning cannonade had ceased.
For some hours, the English ships were seen tacking hither
(03:19):
and thither in strange disorder. But at last, out of
the confusion, four distinct lines developed themselves and bore down
on the wondering Spaniards to compel them once more to
shorten sail and haul to the wind. Yet not a
shot was fired, and no sooner was the Spanish battle
array completely formed, than the four lines twisted back like
(03:40):
snakes and left it untouched. Vexed to be so fooled,
and convinced that the English meant only to delay him
till the fine weather should break. Sdonia resolved to turn
no more till the spires of Calais rose in sight,
but he was wrong. Reinforced and supple flight anew with powder.
(04:01):
Howard at last felt justified in pushing home an attack.
Three days had passed since the fleets first engaged. Three
days more would bring the Armada to its goal, and
although its advance had been well delayed, there was still
no sign of a return of the tempestuous weather. It
would no longer do to watch the face of the skies.
(04:24):
If the Armada's power was to be broken, it must
be by the hand of man. By this time they
were abreast to the Isle of Wight, and its proximity
emphasized the necessity for prompt offensive action. From his exalted prisoner,
Drake had been able to learn that in certain contingencies
the island was to be occupied in order to provide
(04:46):
a harbor of refuge for the Armada, and it was
clear the great effort could no longer be delayed, nor
could a better battlefield be wished for than the spot
the two fleets had now reached. As they lay off
off Sundon Bay, between the island and Celsey Bill.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
The Armada had in its lee.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
A whole network of shoals stretching from the Ower's to Spitthead,
and a vigorous attack from windward promised either to press
it in confusion amongst the intricate channels off Portsmouth, or,
if it attempted to weather the Bill and so regain
the open sea, to drive it on the ower Bank.
(05:25):
Such at least would seem to have been Drake's idea,
and it was probably to increase the energy of the
attack that Howard had consented to divide the fleet into
four divisions. He himself commanded the first, and Drake retained
his own at the second, while the third and fourth
were given respectively to Howard's two flag officers, Hawkins and Frobisher.
(05:47):
To attack Sedonia's serried ranks as they were was but
to court defeat, and in Council of War it had
been resolved that during the night, six merchantmen from each division,
by engaging at four different points, were to loosen the
Spaniard's formation and prepare it for the attack of the battleships.
(06:08):
So Drake meant to wrestle his great fall with the
Spanish power. It was a well laid scheme, and had
the wind held, the Armada might never have sailed another
league to the east. But as it chanced, the wind
fell so light that the detailed merchantmen were unable to
carry out their orders, and as the morning of the
(06:29):
fourth day broke serene and calm, the only sign of
movement was where some of Hawkins's vessels were seen trying
to tow themselves alongside the Santa Anna and another crippled Spaniard.
Well nigh helpless with their wounds, they had drifted from
the ranks and seemed an easy prey. Three galleases came
(06:50):
sweeping to the rescue in all their majesty of oar
and sail, but it was not to victory. With dogged courage,
the leading ships of Howard and Frobisher's divisions were towed
by their boats to meet the floating castles, and were
soon tearing and shattering them with chain shot and a
hail of balls. The boldest of the Spanish rearguard struggled
(07:13):
into support, and at last Sidonia signaled for a general action.
It was the feast of San Domingo, his patron saint
a light breeze had sprung up in his favor, and,
with banners flying and trumpets braying, convinced at last that
its hour of victory had come, the armada formed in
line of battle. The Holy Standard rose aloft, and the
(07:37):
tide of battle turned. The disabled galleases were got out
of action, and Frobisher and Howard, cut off and surrounded,
seemed doomed to meet no better fate. The rest of
the fleet were standing away, as though to save themselves
and desert their comrades, and the Spaniards felt certain of
their prey. Still, like the heroes of some Homeric fire,
(08:00):
the isolated admirals fought on, dealing destruction around and clearing
themselves with their boats from every ship that attempted to
lay them aboard. In wonder and admiration, the Spaniards still
pressed closer till the wind began to freshen. Then at
last they learnt the meaning of the strange tactics of
the enemy's two starboard divisions. While Howard and Frobisher were
(08:24):
holding the Spaniards over the brink of the pit, Drake
and Hawkins had laboriously secured a vantage ground from which
to thrust them down and air. Sedonia had well grasped
the sudden jeopardy in which his whole fleet was placed.
The two Kinsmen, with half a gale of wind and
their swelling sails, crashed in.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Upon his left. The charge was irresistible.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
The amazed weather squadrons gave way, crowding in upon the
center and forcing the whole armada to leeward. In vain
did Frobisher's persecutor's turn. Howard was free now and added
the weight of heat his consorts to the confusion with
a new attack. The mouth of Portsmouth Roads yawned on
Sidonia's lee, as though to engulf his armada down. Came
(09:10):
the holy standard of his crusading king. In its place
flew the signal to close up and a roundel, and so,
to the indignation of his fighting admirals, he hastened to
make his escape, and, inclining away to the coast of France,
saved his fleet from the ower banks. A hot fray,
wrote Hawkins, wherein some store of powder was spent, and
(09:34):
after all little done. The change of wynd had saved Sidonia.
Drake and his Kinsmen knew their movement had failed, but
Howards celebrated it as a victory as the two fleets lay,
but calmed. Next day, some two miles apart on the
poop of the Ark Royal, he knighted Frobisher and three
(09:54):
noble kinsmen of his own, who had fought their ships
at his side. They were the heroes, the poets sang,
and well they deserved the praise. But though Hawkins was
made Sir John with the rest for the cool head
that had planned the fight and so nearly destroyed the
enemy with strange tactics in which bards could see no meaning,
(10:15):
there was no reward. Frobisher, the intrepid explorer, who knew
nothing of naval warfare, even accused the rivalhood eclipsed his
fame of cowardice when he heard Drake had taken Don
Pedro de Baldez and his great galleon. He swore the
man that had brought England to all her trouble had
deliberately lagged behind to reap the reward of his comrade's courage.
(10:39):
The story is sad to tell, but let it be
the glory of Elizabeth's captains that, in the heat of
their jealousy and quarrels, they never forgot the sacred cause
she personified. The last chance of destroying the Armada before
it reached its destination was now gone. All Friday, the
two fleets lay within sight of each other till in
(11:02):
the evening the breeze got up from the southwest, and
the Armada began the last stage of its adventurous voyage.
So splendid was the order it kept before the wind
that though the English still dogged its heels, no attack
was attempted, and ashore spurs pressed deep, and beacons flamed,
faint hearts sank, and brave men trooped together, as almost untouched,
(11:26):
the great host drew to its goal. On Saturday afternoon.
It was passing Calais six leagues more, and it would
reach Dunkirk when suddenly it came to Anchor, completely surprised
the English so nearly overran the enemy that they only
save the weather Gage by boldly anchoring within gunshot to windward.
(11:48):
It was a solemn hour as Seymour and Winter from
the Channel fleet joined with the rest on Howard's flagship
in momentous council. As the great German historian has said,
the fortune of Man hung on the balance. When we
consider the difficulties of the navigation even for a single ship,
the projecting headlands of the Channel, the intricate currents, the
(12:11):
precarious winds. It is impossible not to admire the brilliant
manner in which the Great Armada had been brought to
its destination. In spite of the greatest seamen of the age,
in spite of the incubus of a cumbrous convoy, it
had reached with an arm's length of its goal, and
amid the hurried tramp of the gathering levees, arose loud
(12:34):
railing at the English captains for their failure. The Spaniards
themselves could hardly credit their success. They were dispirited with
their losses. To Leeward lay the unknown terrors of the
North Sea. To Winward was a horror worse than all,
For there they knew was Eldrake, busy brewing in his
(12:55):
ships as they rode so peacefully at their anchors, the
devilry for which he had had let them come so far.
Such thoughts, at least, the terror of that name conjured
as the night fell. Nor were they very wrong who
first thought of it? None can tell. Indeed, it matters
little since that terrible night in Verdacu's harbor twenty years ago,
(13:18):
and later when the Devil ship blew parm As legions
to atoms on the Antwerp boom. The device was in
every man's mind. It was a remedy hardly fit for
Christian men to use. Yet at all hazards the Armada
must be dislodged. The Dutch fleet, which had been blockading Dunkirk,
had been compelled by its necessities to retire and leave
(13:41):
Palmer free to come out at any moment. The weather
might serve, and in a few hours the Great Army
might have passed the channel. It was on Sunday the
Council of War met and ere it separated.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
The grim resolve was.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Taken that night the tide would serve, and Sir Henry
Palmer sped to Dover for the means which for this
supreme moment had been collected there. But no sooner was
he gone than there were some that grew impatient and
saw that he could not return.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
In time to catch the tide.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
It would not do to risk the loss of another day.
There were ships in plenty with the fleet. Drake offered
one of his own for the sacrifice, and seven more
were quickly chosen. As the night closed in dark and moonless,
a presentiment of impending doom disquieted the great host to leeward.
(14:35):
The awful tragedy of Antwerp was in every mind, and
hither and thither flitted launches patrolling to windward of the
Spanish anchorage in nervous expectation. Midnight had passed, the night
was at its blackest, and the rushing tide swirled dark
and angry through the crowded galleons as they lay laboring,
(14:56):
each with two anchors out in the depth of the gloom.
Whence the flood was sweeping with the wind. The English
lights were twinkling peacefully till a sudden flare obscured their brightness.
Then another, and another burst out and glowed and grew,
till eight flaming masses reddened the night and sped forward
(15:20):
with wind and tide upon the terror stricken armada. Such
as sight man's eyes had never seen. What wonder if
a panic seized the Spanish fleet.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
There was no time to weigh.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
In reckless haste, cables were slipped and cut, and like
a herd of stampeding cattle in mad confusion, the tide
swept the Great Fleet away, crashing ship on ship through
a tangle of writhing cables. End of section twenty
Section twenty 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 Graveline, Part two.
Seeing the danger, the Duke signaled to his immediate following
to keep on to where the fight raged round the
(00:21):
crippled Saint Anna, while he himself went about and bore
down to support the galleases and protect his more defenseless charges.
The triumph was now in serious danger, Nor could the
English seamen, having once exposed the Armada's vulnerable point, permitted
to be covered again without a blow. Moreover, the continual
(00:43):
closing up of the scattered Spanish rear guard had rendered
the struggle round Ricalde too equal to suit Drake's ideas.
Once more, he and his fellows disengaged, and Sidonia suddenly
found himself alone between the transports and his rear guard,
with all the English battleships bearing down upon him. Having
(01:03):
reduced the Santana to such a wreck that Racalde was
compelled to transfer his flag, they were bent untreating as
hardly the Captain General of the Ocean Sea, with all
the Old world Chivalry of Spain. The Duke shortened sail
to await the attack, and for an hour endured alone
(01:24):
the whole fire of his enemy, as ship by ship
passed by and plunged its broadside into the great San Martin,
from its fortress, of the poop, from its castle, of
the prow, from its placidae atamas, and the waist. The
splinters shivered and split till the water poured in through
(01:44):
the shotholes. The rigging hung in ruin, and the holy
standard of the crusade was rent in twain. So they
left him and passed on to support Frobisher and gather
the fruit of Drake's bewildering tactics. Under all sail, the
Spanish battleships toiled to the rescue. But when as the
sun sank low, Sedonia had once more gathered up his
(02:07):
flock into a roundel, there were many that labored sorely, and.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Three were gone.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
It was a poor enough result for a hard fought action.
The English powder was spent, another day was gone, and
still the Armada looked almost as formidable as ever. Yet
the effect was deeper than it seemed. With no little alarm,
the Spanish officers had been shown the mobility of a
fleet formed line ahead, and its power of concentration on
(02:37):
weak points. It was the first dawn of those modern
tactics which Blake and Monk were to develop and Nelson
to perfect, and both sides recognized the great fact. The
Spaniard's hearts sank as they saw how ill adapted were
their floating fortresses for the new situation, and a bolder
(02:58):
purpose inspired Howard. On the morrow, though active operations were
confined to twice, compelling the Armada to stop its advance
and form line of battle to its rear, a most
important step was taken after the morning cannonade had ceased.
For some hours, the English ships were seen tacking hither
(03:19):
and thither in strange disorder. But at last, out of
the confusion, four distinct lines developed themselves and bore down
on the wondering Spaniards to compel them once more to
shorten sail and haul to the wind. Yet not a
shot was fired, and no sooner was the Spanish battle
array completely formed, than the four lines twisted back like
(03:40):
snakes and left it untouched. Vexed to be so fooled,
and convinced that the English meant only to delay him
till the fine weather should break. Sdonia resolved to turn
no more till the spires of Calais rose in sight,
but he was wrong. Reinforced and supple flight anew with powder.
(04:01):
Howard at last felt justified in pushing home an attack.
Three days had passed since the fleets first engaged. Three
days more would bring the Armada to its goal, and
although its advance had been well delayed, there was still
no sign of a return of the tempestuous weather. It
would no longer do to watch the face of the skies.
(04:24):
If the Armada's power was to be broken, it must
be by the hand of man. By this time they
were abreast to the Isle of Wight, and its proximity
emphasized the necessity for prompt offensive action. From his exalted prisoner,
Drake had been able to learn that in certain contingencies
the island was to be occupied in order to provide
(04:46):
a harbor of refuge for the Armada, and it was
clear the great effort could no longer be delayed, nor
could a better battlefield be wished for than the spot
the two fleets had now reached. As they lay off
off Sundon Bay, between the island and Celsey Bill.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
The Armada had in its lee.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
A whole network of shoals stretching from the Ower's to Spitthead,
and a vigorous attack from windward promised either to press
it in confusion amongst the intricate channels off Portsmouth, or,
if it attempted to weather the Bill and so regain
the open sea, to drive it on the ower Bank.
(05:25):
Such at least would seem to have been Drake's idea,
and it was probably to increase the energy of the
attack that Howard had consented to divide the fleet into
four divisions. He himself commanded the first, and Drake retained
his own at the second, while the third and fourth
were given respectively to Howard's two flag officers, Hawkins and Frobisher.
(05:47):
To attack Sedonia's serried ranks as they were was but
to court defeat, and in Council of War it had
been resolved that during the night, six merchantmen from each division,
by engaging at four different points, were to loosen the
Spaniard's formation and prepare it for the attack of the battleships.
(06:08):
So Drake meant to wrestle his great fall with the
Spanish power. It was a well laid scheme, and had
the wind held, the Armada might never have sailed another
league to the east. But as it chanced, the wind
fell so light that the detailed merchantmen were unable to
carry out their orders, and as the morning of the
(06:29):
fourth day broke serene and calm, the only sign of
movement was where some of Hawkins's vessels were seen trying
to tow themselves alongside the Santa Anna and another crippled Spaniard.
Well nigh helpless with their wounds, they had drifted from
the ranks and seemed an easy prey. Three galleases came
(06:50):
sweeping to the rescue in all their majesty of oar
and sail, but it was not to victory. With dogged courage,
the leading ships of Howard and Frobisher's divisions were towed
by their boats to meet the floating castles, and were
soon tearing and shattering them with chain shot and a
hail of balls. The boldest of the Spanish rearguard struggled
(07:13):
into support, and at last Sidonia signaled for a general action.
It was the feast of San Domingo, his patron saint
a light breeze had sprung up in his favor, and,
with banners flying and trumpets braying, convinced at last that
its hour of victory had come, the armada formed in
line of battle. The Holy Standard rose aloft, and the
(07:37):
tide of battle turned. The disabled galleases were got out
of action, and Frobisher and Howard, cut off and surrounded,
seemed doomed to meet no better fate. The rest of
the fleet were standing away, as though to save themselves
and desert their comrades, and the Spaniards felt certain of
their prey. Still, like the heroes of some Homeric fire,
(08:00):
the isolated admirals fought on, dealing destruction around and clearing
themselves with their boats from every ship that attempted to
lay them aboard. In wonder and admiration, the Spaniards still
pressed closer till the wind began to freshen. Then at
last they learnt the meaning of the strange tactics of
the enemy's two starboard divisions. While Howard and Frobisher were
(08:24):
holding the Spaniards over the brink of the pit, Drake
and Hawkins had laboriously secured a vantage ground from which
to thrust them down and air. Sedonia had well grasped
the sudden jeopardy in which his whole fleet was placed.
The two Kinsmen, with half a gale of wind and
their swelling sails, crashed in.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Upon his left. The charge was irresistible.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
The amazed weather squadrons gave way, crowding in upon the
center and forcing the whole armada to leeward. In vain
did Frobisher's persecutor's turn. Howard was free now and added
the weight of heat his consorts to the confusion with
a new attack. The mouth of Portsmouth Roads yawned on
Sidonia's lee, as though to engulf his armada down. Came
(09:10):
the holy standard of his crusading king. In its place
flew the signal to close up and a roundel, and so,
to the indignation of his fighting admirals, he hastened to
make his escape, and, inclining away to the coast of France,
saved his fleet from the ower banks. A hot fray,
wrote Hawkins, wherein some store of powder was spent, and
(09:34):
after all little done. The change of wynd had saved Sidonia.
Drake and his Kinsmen knew their movement had failed, but
Howards celebrated it as a victory as the two fleets lay,
but calmed. Next day, some two miles apart on the
poop of the Ark Royal, he knighted Frobisher and three
(09:54):
noble kinsmen of his own, who had fought their ships
at his side. They were the heroes, the poets sang,
and well they deserved the praise. But though Hawkins was
made Sir John with the rest for the cool head
that had planned the fight and so nearly destroyed the
enemy with strange tactics in which bards could see no meaning,
(10:15):
there was no reward. Frobisher, the intrepid explorer, who knew
nothing of naval warfare, even accused the rivalhood eclipsed his
fame of cowardice when he heard Drake had taken Don
Pedro de Baldez and his great galleon. He swore the
man that had brought England to all her trouble had
deliberately lagged behind to reap the reward of his comrade's courage.
(10:39):
The story is sad to tell, but let it be
the glory of Elizabeth's captains that, in the heat of
their jealousy and quarrels, they never forgot the sacred cause
she personified. The last chance of destroying the Armada before
it reached its destination was now gone. All Friday, the
two fleets lay within sight of each other till in
(11:02):
the evening the breeze got up from the southwest, and
the Armada began the last stage of its adventurous voyage.
So splendid was the order it kept before the wind
that though the English still dogged its heels, no attack
was attempted, and ashore spurs pressed deep, and beacons flamed,
faint hearts sank, and brave men trooped together, as almost untouched,
(11:26):
the great host drew to its goal. On Saturday afternoon.
It was passing Calais six leagues more, and it would
reach Dunkirk when suddenly it came to Anchor, completely surprised
the English so nearly overran the enemy that they only
save the weather Gage by boldly anchoring within gunshot to windward.
(11:48):
It was a solemn hour as Seymour and Winter from
the Channel fleet joined with the rest on Howard's flagship
in momentous council. As the great German historian has said,
the fortune of Man hung on the balance. When we
consider the difficulties of the navigation even for a single ship,
the projecting headlands of the Channel, the intricate currents, the
(12:11):
precarious winds. It is impossible not to admire the brilliant
manner in which the Great Armada had been brought to
its destination. In spite of the greatest seamen of the age,
in spite of the incubus of a cumbrous convoy, it
had reached with an arm's length of its goal, and
amid the hurried tramp of the gathering levees, arose loud
(12:34):
railing at the English captains for their failure. The Spaniards
themselves could hardly credit their success. They were dispirited with
their losses. To Leeward lay the unknown terrors of the
North Sea. To Winward was a horror worse than all,
For there they knew was Eldrake, busy brewing in his
(12:55):
ships as they rode so peacefully at their anchors, the
devilry for which he had had let them come so far.
Such thoughts, at least, the terror of that name conjured
as the night fell. Nor were they very wrong who
first thought of it? None can tell. Indeed, it matters
little since that terrible night in Verdacu's harbor twenty years ago,
(13:18):
and later when the Devil ship blew parm As legions
to atoms on the Antwerp boom. The device was in
every man's mind. It was a remedy hardly fit for
Christian men to use. Yet at all hazards the Armada
must be dislodged. The Dutch fleet, which had been blockading Dunkirk,
had been compelled by its necessities to retire and leave
(13:41):
Palmer free to come out at any moment. The weather
might serve, and in a few hours the Great Army
might have passed the channel. It was on Sunday the
Council of War met and ere it separated.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
The grim resolve was.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Taken that night the tide would serve, and Sir Henry
Palmer sped to Dover for the means which for this
supreme moment had been collected there. But no sooner was
he gone than there were some that grew impatient and
saw that he could not return.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
In time to catch the tide.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
It would not do to risk the loss of another day.
There were ships in plenty with the fleet. Drake offered
one of his own for the sacrifice, and seven more
were quickly chosen. As the night closed in dark and moonless,
a presentiment of impending doom disquieted the great host to leeward.
(14:35):
The awful tragedy of Antwerp was in every mind, and
hither and thither flitted launches patrolling to windward of the
Spanish anchorage in nervous expectation. Midnight had passed, the night
was at its blackest, and the rushing tide swirled dark
and angry through the crowded galleons as they lay laboring,
(14:56):
each with two anchors out in the depth of the gloom.
Whence the flood was sweeping with the wind. The English
lights were twinkling peacefully till a sudden flare obscured their brightness.
Then another, and another burst out and glowed and grew,
till eight flaming masses reddened the night and sped forward
(15:20):
with wind and tide upon the terror stricken armada. Such
as sight man's eyes had never seen. What wonder if
a panic seized the Spanish fleet.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
There was no time to weigh.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
In reckless haste, cables were slipped and cut, and like
a herd of stampeding cattle in mad confusion, the tide
swept the Great Fleet away, crashing ship on ship through
a tangle of writhing cables. End of section twenty
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com