more belonging to a good man of war upon
the waters than great daring, and must know that there is a
great deal of difference between fighting loose or at large and
grappling. To clap ships together without consideration belongs
rather to a madman than to a man of war; for by such an ignorant
bravery was Peter Strozzi lost at the Azores, when he fought
against the Marquis of Santa Cruz. In like sort had the Lord
Charles Howard, Admiral of England, been lost in the year 1588,
if he had not been better advised than a great many malignant
fools were, that found fault with his demeanour. The Spaniards
had an army aboard them, and he had none; they had more ships
than he had, and of higher building and charging; so that, had
he entangled himself with those great and powerful vessels, he
had greatly endangered this kingdom of England. For twenty men
upon the defences are equal to a hundred that board and enter;
whereas then, contrariwise, the Spaniards had a hundred for
twenty of ours, to defend themselves withal. But our admiral
knew his advantage and held it; which had he not done, he had
not been worthy to have held his head."

[10] "Historie of the World," edit. 1736, ii, 565, quoted by
Professor Laughton, "State Papers relating to the Defeat of the
Spanish Armada," vol. i, Introduction, p. lxvi.

The shift of the wind to the north-west had given the English the weather
gage. They could run down before it on the enemy, and beat back against it
in a way that was impossible for the clumsy galleons. Thus Howard and his
captains could choose their own position and range during the fighting. It
began by a pinnace, appropriately named the "Defiance," firing a shot at
the nearest Spaniards, a challenge to battle. Medina-Sidonia held his
course and took no notice of it. Howard's squadron now swept past his
left, and then engaged his rear ships. The admiral himself in "The Ark"
steered for De Leyva's tall galleon, the "Rata Coronada," perhaps taking
her to be the flagship of the whole Armada. The two ships were soon in
action, the English gunners firing at the Spaniard's great hull, and De
Leyva's men aiming at the masts and yards of the "Ark" in the hope of
bringing down her spars and sails, crippling and then boarding her. The
better gunnery was on the English side. They fired three shots to the
Spaniards' one, and every shot told on the huge ta