u will see that
guns firing inward from the whole length of the cross-stroke have a
great advantage over guns firing back from the front of the up-stroke.
In other words, the broad front converges on the narrow front and
smashes it.

The crowded Spaniards sailed on, the whole week long, before the
pursuing English in the "eagle formation," with the big ships forming
the body and the lighter ones the wings: good enough for ancient
battles like Lepanto, but of no use against a modern fleet like
Drake's. Most of them could hardly have been more nearly useless if
they had been just so many elephants fighting killer whales at sea. Do
what they could, they could not catch the nimble Sea-Dogs who were
biting them to death. But they still fought on. Their crowded
soldiers were simply targets for the English cannon-balls. Sometimes
the Spanish vessels were seen to drip a horrid red, as if the very
decks were bleeding. But when, at the end of the week, Sidonia asked
Oquendo, "What are we to do now?", Oquendo, a dauntless warrior, at
once replied: "Order up more powder!"

The Spaniards at last reached Calais and anchored in the Roads. But,
when the tidal stream was running toward them full, Drake sent nine
fire-ships in among them. There was no time to get their anchors up;
so they cut their cables, swung round with the tide in horrible
confusion, dashing into one another in the dark, and headed for the
shallows of the Flemish coast. This lost them their last chance of
helping Parma into England. But it also saved Parma from losing the
whole of his army at sea. Once more the brave, though cruel, Spaniards
tried to fight the English fleet. But all in vain. This was the end.
It came at Gravelines, on the 29th of July 1588, just ten days after
Captain Fleming of the _Golden Hind_ had stopped Drake's game of bowls
at Plymouth. North, and still north, the beaten Armada ran for its
life; round by the stormy Orkneys, down the wild waters of the Hebrides
and Western Ireland, strewing the coasts with wreckage and dead men,
till at last the few surviving ships limped home.

[Illustration: ARMADA OFF FOWEY (Cornwall) as first seen in the English
Channel.]

There never was a better victory nor one more clearly gained by greater
skill. Nor has there ever been a victory showing more clearly how
impossible it is to keep sea empires safe without a proper navy.

But, after all, it is the whole Sea-Dog war, and not any single b