A. Rischgitz.
SIR JOHN HAWKINS (1532–1595).
Rear-Admiral of the English fleet which defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588, and the designer of all its finest ships.
Photographed from the contemporary painting in the Sir John Hawkins Hospital at Chatham.
The lessons to be drawn from the story of the first Anglo-Spanish War appear to be three:
1. So long as an island state hold the command of the sea, and it be exercised with reasonable skill and prudence, that state is practically invulnerable. Excepting Drake, no Englishman of the sixteenth century apparently understood how to utilize England’s naval supremacy, hence the frequent approach to success of the Spaniards.
2. In a naval war the operations must be vigorous and drastic, and not wasted upon mere commerce destroying. All England’s privateers and cruisers failed to take a single Spanish treasure fleet.
3. It is necessary to have (a) a regular military force strong enough to assist the fleet in its operations on an enemy’s coast; (b) an organized defensive force to deal with isolated raids.