English, only fifteen. But the
Spaniards were six thousand short on arrival; and their actual seamen,
many of whom were only half-trained, then numbered a bare seven
thousand. The seventeen thousand soldiers only made the ships so many
death-traps; for they were of no use afloat except as boarding
parties--and no boarding whatever took place. The English fifteen
thousand, on the other hand, were three-quarters seamen and one-quarter
soldiers who were mostly trained as marines, and this total was actually
present. On the whole, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that the
Armada was mostly composed of armed transports while all the English
vessels that counted in the fighting were real men-of-war.

In every one of the Armada's hundred and twenty-eight vessels, says an
officer of the Spanish flagship, 'our people kneeled down and offered a
prayer, beseeching our Lord to give us victory against the enemies of
His holy faith.' The crews of the hundred and ninety-seven English
vessels which, at one time or another, were present in some capacity on
the scene of action also prayed for victory to the Lord of Hosts, but
took the proper naval means to win it. 'Trust in the Lord--and keep your
powder dry,' said Oliver Cromwell when about to ford a river in the
presence of the enemy. And so, in other words, said Drake.

All day long, on that fateful 20th of July, the visible Armada with its
swinging canvas was lying-to fifteen miles west of the invisible,
bare-masted English fleet. Sidonia held a council of war, which,
landsman-like, believed that the English were divided, one-half watching
Parma, the other the Armada. The trained soldiers and sailors were for
the sound plan of attacking Plymouth first. Some admirals even proposed
the only perfect plan of crushing Drake in detail as he issued from the
Sound. All were in blissful ignorance of the astounding feat of English
seamanship which had already robbed them of the only chance they ever
had. But Philip, also landsman-like, had done his best to thwart his own
Armada; for Sidonia produced the royal orders forbidding any attack on
England till he and Parma had joined hands. Drake, however, might be
crushed piecemeal in the offing when still with his aftermost ships in
the Sound. So, with this true idea, unworkable because based on false
information, the generals and admirals dispersed to their vessels and
waited. But then, just as night was closing in, the weather lifted
enough