In the Days of Queen Elizabeth

by Eva March Tappan

One evening in July a game of bowls was going on at the Pelican Inn in Plymouth.

“Your turn, Frobisher,” said Hawkins, “and then Sir Walter’s.”

“That’s well done, Sir Walter. Yours next, Sir Francis,” said Howard. Drake stooped for the ball, and was about to send it, when an old sailor rushed into the room and cried:—

“Admiral, Admiral, they’re coming! I saw them off the Lizard, and there are hundreds of them.”

“What do you say, Admiral,” asked Drake with his hand still on the ball, “Won’t there be time to finish the game and then go out and give the dons a thrashing?”

The Spanish Armada attacked by the English Fleet.

From Pine’s engraving of the tapestry, formerly in the House of Lords, but destroyed by fire in the eighteenth century.

The Spanish ships slowly made their way into the Channel. They were so large and so high at stem and stern that they looked like great floating castles, but they were so clumsy and difficult to manage that the nimble little English boats had a great advantage. The Spanish fleet formed in a wide crescent, the two points seven miles apart, and the English boats went out to meet them. The galleons were high and the English vessels so low that it was difficult to train the Spanish guns upon them, moreover, the Spaniards were not good marksmen. They would have had a better chance, however, if the English had only been willing to stand still and be fired at, but the Spanish were much surprised and disgusted when the saucy little English craft slipped up under their very bows, fired a shot or two and were away firing at the next ship before the Spanish guns could be trained upon them. Some of the little boats sailed the whole length of the crescent, firing at every vessel and coming off without a scar.

This kind of encounter was kept up for more than a week, for the English hesitated to attempt a regular engagement. The Spanish suffered severely. Masts were shattered, the rigging was cut up, great, ragged holes were torn in the hulls, and large numbers of sailors were slain, but even worse was to follow.