Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

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The Spanish ships were almost invulnerable to the shot and ordnance of the day, and “their height was such that our bravest seamen were against any attempt at boarding them.” These facts were well understood by Elizabeth’s ministers, and the Lord Admiral was instructed to convert eight of his worst vessels into fire-ships. The orders arrived so à propos of the occasion, and were so swiftly executed, that within thirty hours after the enemy had cast anchor off Calais, the ships were unloaded and dismantled, filled with combustibles and all their ordnance charged, and their sides being smeared with pitch, rosin, and wildfire, were sent, in the dead of the night, with wind and tide, against the Spanish fleet. When the Spaniards saw the whole sea glittering and shining with the reflection of the flames, the guns exploding as the fire reached them, and a heavy canopy of dense smoke overhead obscuring the heavens, they remembered those terrible fire-ships which had been used so effectively in the Scheldt, and the cry resounded through the fleet, “The fire of Antwerp!” Some of the Spanish captains let their hawsers slip, some cut their cables, and in terror and confusion put to sea; “happiest they who could first be gone, though few or none could tell which course to take.” In the midst of all this fearful excitement one of the largest of the galleases, commanded by D. Hugo de Moncada, ran foul of another ship, lost her rudder, floated about at the mercy of the tide, and at length ran upon Calais sands. Here she was assailed by the English small craft, who battered her with their guns, but dared not attempt boarding till the admiral sent a hundred men in his boats, under Sir Amias Preston. The Spaniards fought bravely, but at length Moncada was shot through the head, and the galleas was carried by boarding. Most of the Spanish soldiers, 400 in number, jumped overboard and were drowned; the 300 galley-slaves were freed from their fetters. The vessel had 50,000 ducats on board, “a booty,” says Speed, “well fitting the English soldiers’ affections.” The English were about to set the galleas on fire, but the governor of Calais prevented this by firing upon the captors, and the ship became his prize.