Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1917-09-15

Churchill, then first lord of the Brit
ish admiralty. modified the grand
fleet In defiance of orders not to do
SO, and thus was ready to spring at
Germany with every sea dog of Eng
land when war broke forth, II Col
onel Churchill thus acted he had high
English example in the case of Lord
Howard Dillingham;. 1t was he who
as high admiral of England in 1888
disobeyed most flagrantly Queen Eliza
beth's own order to dismantle part OF
his fleet and was therefore possessed
of the strength to smash the great ar
mazda of Spain when its lofty gal
Icons came rolling into the channel.
Spain was at that time perhaps the
most powerful nation In the world,
England was by comparison feeble.
Spain sought world empire, Her
Philip believed 1t possible to make
himself the head of universal mon
archy, sharing power only with the
pope. England stood in his way
Hence the dispatch of the armada to
make England vassal to Spain, burn
her heretlcs and establish the sway OF
Philip over both the old and the new
hemispheres.
Howard, with his captains, was at
game Of bowls in Plymouth town
when there came scuttling into the
harbor Scotch privateer with the
news that the armada was even then
off the Cornish coast Forthwith there
was a rush fir messengers, lighting
of alarm flrse and Il press of cap
tains for their ships. Only Sir Frances
Drake remaiped unconcerned. There
was time, he observed, both to win the
game and beat the Spanlards, So aim
ing their bowlf very carefully and cool
ly they finished what Hallam reck-
ons the chest and bravest match that
ever was scored"
The royal navy, augmented now by
several times It's number of armed mer-
chantmen, had got together a fleet
of 191 vessels. The bitterly punished
but still indomitahle Dutch sent some
help from Holland. The largest YES
sci Of all was the Triumph, measuring
LOO tons. The number of men was
slightly over 1900 Howard, com
manding, was himself a Catholic, but
though Philip proclaimed his cause the
cause of the church against the here.
tic, Howard and all the other English
Catholics remained splendidly loyal.
Against them Philip sent force the
tremendous extent of which Is given
by Hakluyt. The vessels numbered
| $50, no less than GA of them galleons,
which HallIuyt says were Of IAN huge
bignesse and Of marvellous force and
so high that they rescmbled great cas-
ties" Manning the fleet were 5000
sailors, 2,0SS slaves and 10000 soldiers,
! besides mobiles and gentlemen, all UNI
| der command Of the duke of Medina
Sidonia. At Dunkirk, the great Span
ish general, Farnese, was collecting an
other fleet for the transport of troops
| to England as soon as the armada
should win the command Of the seas.
"The nvincibe Armada as the
Spaniards termed it, entered the Chan
mel headed for Plymouth in the hope
of surprising the English, found How
| ard sallying forth to meet It, and stood
off for Dunkirk. Howard first sighted
his enemy on Saturday, the 10Th of
July. Letting the great fleet pass
he followed, marrying it so severe
" that the Spaniards lost several ships.
! Medina SidOnia at last brought his
ships to anchor in Calais roadstead, his
larger craft lying in the outer circle.
Howard dared not attack at close quar-
| ters. since his vessels were much In
ferior in tonnage and in ordinance,
while. as Sir Wallace Raleigh says,
"the Spaniard had an army on board
him and Howard had none" How
ever on the night of the Doth he sent
in eight freships, so alarming the
| Spanards that they cut their cables
and put to sea. One of the largest
galeasses fouled another and went
ashore. In the confusion the rest OF
the fleet became badly scattered so
that In the morning the feat of reas-
sembling in feet formation was most
difficult. Now was the opportunity OF
the English to attack on something like
equal terms.
Drake and Fener were the first TO
| tackle their cumbersome foes. Then
came Fenton, Southwell Burton and
the rest, with the lord admiral plunging
| in himself. While the action was that
of detached vessels rather than squad
rons. II was general and it was furious
ly hot Drake was hulled no less than
| 40 times and his cabin was shot out
! from under him. The shot Of demi-
| culyerin landed on the dinner table OF
the earl of Northumberland. But the
! English ships were the smarter sail
ors, the English got the weather gauge
and they kept the vessels in a
smother Of smoke and flame as they
smote the unwieldy Spanish hulls, on
the decks of which huddled the great
mass of soldiery, worse than useless In
this action, where the English simply
,yt nDtns Ia pIpgp u1t1rtarG and