e main body of the fleet under Howard of Effingham assembled at Plymouth.
Detached squadrons under Lord Henry Seymour and Sir W. Winter watched the
Straits of Dover. Some of the captains thought Plymouth had been unwisely
chosen as the station of the main fleet, pointing out that a south or
south-west wind, which would be a fair wind for the Spaniards, would be a
very foul one for ships working out of the long inlet of Plymouth Harbour.

In June, Howard had news that the Armada was not only at sea, but far on
its voyage. Merchantmen ran for shelter to Plymouth, and told how they had
met at least two squadrons of large ships with great red crosses on their
foresails off Land's End, and in the entrance of the Channel. One ship had
been chased and fired on by a Spaniard. Then all trace of the enemy was
lost. There was no news of him in the Channel or on the Irish coasts. The
weather had been bad, and it was rightly conjectured that the squadrons
sighted off Land's End were only detachments of the Armada scattered by the
storm, and that the great fleet had put back to Spain, probably to Corunna.
This was soon confirmed by reports from France.

For a while there was an impression that the danger was over. Drake,
Hawkins, and other captains urged that now was the time to take the English
fleet to the Spanish coast and destroy the crippled and discouraged Armada
in its harbours. But the Queen and her Council hesitated to adopt so bold a
policy, and only a few ships were sent out to watch for the enemy in the
Bay of Biscay. These returned driven before a strong south wind, and then
fugitives from the Channel brought news that there was a crowd of ships off
the Lizard, and Howard in a short note reported that he had gone out to
engage them. The Armada had come in earnest at last.

After refitting at Corunna, Medina-Sidonia had sailed on 22 July with fine
weather and a fair south wind. Progress was not rapid, for the great
fleet's speed was that of its slowest ships. On the 26th, when the Armada
was well out to sea off the headlands of Brittany, the morning was dull and
cloudy, and towards noon the wind went round to the northward and increased
to half a gale, raising a heavy sea. The course was changed to the
eastward, and the ships were kept under shortened sail. The four galleys,
unable to face the rising storm, ran for shelter towards the French coast,
and never rejoined. They went southwards before the wind. One was wrecked