The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1898-09-02
IHE EGIS AND TNTELlIGENCER.
BEL AIR. ND, SEPTEMBER 2, 1898.
THE BEATEN ARMADA
FEARFUL FATE OF SPANS ROASTED
INVlNClBLE FLEET.

FEARFUL FATE OF SPAIN'S Boosted
INVlNClBLE FLEET.
The Big GalIeons, Battered and Riddled
With Shot by the Little English Fleet
Were Sent Drifting Toward the Shoals.
Begging Sidonia to Surrender.
The Spanish Armada" is the subject
of an article in The Century written by
William Frederic Tilton with an intro.
duction by Captain Alfred Il. Nathan. Mr..
Tilton says of the defeat of the ''invinci.
bic armada
In Spain the progress and fortunes OF
the armada had naturally been the one all
absorbing theme of boasting or conjecture,
i'll palace and monastery, in street and
shop. From every altar of the land ferVCnt
prayers for its success We're rising. The
king himself passed hours of every day
u:,on llis knees before the sacrament, and
those in waiting ON him declared that he
often rose in the night, signing To heaven
for victory.
And now came McnduZa's good News.
Yet the king, fcvrrish its WAS his longing
sUlute trust III his ambassadors confused
report for the sanguinc, magniloqucnt
Mendoza had Il reputation for 'decciving
himself" so Philip i'll an agony of coli
nicting doubt and hope shut himself up i'll
the Escurial and would give no one audi
cncc until he should receive more certain
tidingS.
While McndoZa's ridiculous rumors were
circulating through the courts of the con-
tincnt the armada was in reality flying,
crippled and miserable, into the fogs and
gales of the German ocean. For Philips
fleet, if not actually conquered, had been
terribly shattered by the inccssant, deadly
fire of the English gunners in the great
fight off GravCinCS. When the Spanish
admiral, the Duke of Medina Sidonia,
counted over his shius after the battle,
several were missing. among them those
of the two heroes of the day on the Span
ish side. the daShng, irresistible soldier
sailors Toledo and Pimcntcl, who, having
fought till, in the words of Il Spanish Off
Ger present, their crack gallcons were
knocked in pieces and the crews nearly
all dead or wounded, " drifted in the black
night, helpless or rather unhelpcd, away
from their consorts toward the Low Coun-
try coast
NTlllHS Vi inc ullllildtt ldlc vi blllS
splendid fleet, Captain Alfred Il. Mahan
says:
Yet the armada had not been utterly
routed, and Elizabcth's captain knew this
full we'll. In the evening, just after the
fighting had ceased, Howard wrote home
that he had DISTRESSED them much" and,
though he doubted not, ''by Gods good
assistance to Cypress them" yet he would
not write unto her majesty till more be
done" And even jubilant Drake, who,
with the insight of the great sea captain,
had at once appreciated almost to its full
extent the success achieved at GraYclines,
still expected to ''wrsstlc pull with the
Spaniards and was Keeping sharp eye
upon them night and day.
In spite of their exhaustion the Span
iards had scarce closed their eyes during
the night after Gravclincs, fearing every
moment to hear their ships strike on the
trcachcrouS banks which skirt the Low
Country coast. Soon after day broke their
fears were all but realized. The wind had
gradually edged to the northward and
was now blowing hard from the north
west. This must have been Il fair enough
wind for Calais; but Sidonia had no
stomach for another fight, and owing to
their crippled state his ships, bad sailers
at best, were now falling off to lccward
toward the low line of shoals. With terror
the SpaniardS saw i'll front of them the
great waves breaking into gray foam on
the smooth sands ard close behind them
the pursuing English fleet.
Sidonia was tagging behind with his
stout hearted lieutenants, Rccald and.
Lcyva. The pilots declared that the fleet
was doomed unless the wind shifted and
that speedily. Chicken hearted officers
begged Sidonia to strike his colors and at
least save ships and lives, but the admiral
confessed himself and resolved to die, if
ii" he must, like a true knight Of the
"ruaS. The English, however, did not at
tack, believing, as the Spaniards aftcrward
concluded, that the armada was drifting of
itself to sure destruction. Suddenly by
miracle, as the Spaniards piously thought,
the wind vccrcd to the southwark The
armada, rescued from the shoals only to
suffer more terrible fate, cased sheets
and sailed out into the deep North sea-
closely followed by the English.
Shaken by the terrible strain of the last
ten days and now utterly unnervcd by the
narrowness of this last escape from the
very jaws of death, Sidonia WAS in panic
of doubt and despair. So, hastily sum
moning Il council of war, he asked whether
he ought to sail BACK INTO the channel. II
was voted to do so if the wind came fair
otherwise to "obcy the weather. and sail
north about to Spain, for, it was urged,
hulls We're leaking at Il thousand shot
holes, the rigging was terribly cut up and
the ammunition was nearly all consumed
Promising to turn back if the wind shift
ed, Sidunia headed his ragged fleet for the
Orllneys.
The fate of the Spanish armada stands
conspicuous among the great catastrophes
Of VT narrated by history. According to
the estimate of the Spanish captain Duro,
who has made IL close study of the records
in his own country, out of 100 sail of
which the armada was composed when it
left Lisbon on May 80, 1888, SO We're lost.
OF these only nine fell in battle or in i'm
mediate consequence thereof, although
the injuries received in the various actions
in the channel doubtless contributed to
the ultimate shipwrCck of many. Nine
teen We're cast away on the Scottish and
Irish coasts; 30 disappeared altogether.
OF these last It is possible that some of the
smaller classes of vessels may have reached
port, and that the fact passed unnotcd,
but of the forty odd larger vessels which
never returned the probability is that
those whose fate is unknown persisted at