The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-10-31
CAPTAINS OF.
|
BY ROGER POCOCK
Copyright By Hobbs Merrill Company
By ROGER POCOCK

SLfdils lney turned at pay Win IDDIg-
five hundred guns. but eight ships bore
down on fire, stanpediBg the broken
fleet. to be slaughtered, foundered.
burned or cast away. strewing the coast
with Wreckage from Dover to Cape
Wrath and down the Western Isles.
Fifty-three ruined ships got back to
Spain with a tale of storms and the
English which Europe has never for
gotten. insuring tie peace of English
homes for three whole centuries.
A year passed, and the largest Of all
the armadas ventured TO sea, this time
from the West Indies. a treasure feet
for Spain. OF two hundred twenty
arrived. the rest being drowned. burst
or taken" Storms and the English de-
stroyed that third armada.
The fourth gear passed, marked by a
hurricane in the Western Isles. and a
great increase of E~ngland's reckoning.
but the climax Of SPANS undoing was
still TO eome in 1891, the year Of the
fourth armada.
To meet and convoy her treasure
fleet of one hundred ten sail from The
Indies, Spain sent u thirty battle
ships to the Azores. There lay an
English squadron OF sixteen vessels.
also in waiting for the treasure fleet.
whose policy was not TO attack the es-
cort. which carried no plumber worth
taking. Lord Towards wee admiral
was Sir Richard Granville, command
ing brakes old flagship. the Revenge.
Of seven hundred tons. This Grenville,
says Linschoten, was a wealthy man
a little eccentric also. for dining once
with some Spanish officers he must
needs play the trick of crunching vine
glasses. and making believe TO swallow
the glass while blood ran from his lips.
On sighting the Spanish squadron Of
escort. Howard put to sea. but Gren-
vile had a hundred sick men to bring
on board the Revenge; his hale men
were sk%ylarking ashore. He stayed be-
hind. and when he attempted to rejoin
the squadron the Spanish fleet of es-
cort was in his way.
On board the Revenge the master
gave orders TO alter course for flight
until Grenville threatened to hang him.
II was Grenville's sole fault that he
was presently beset by eight ships,
each Of them double the size of the
Revenge. So one small cruiser for the
rest of the day and all night fought a
whole fleet, engaging from first to last
thirteen ships of the line. She san
two ships and weil-nigh wrecked i've
more, the Spaniards losing four hun
bred men 10 a fight sitir seventy. Only
when Their admiral las sllet through
the head. and their last gun vas
silenced, their last boarding pike bro
ken, the sixty wounded men who were
left alive, made terms with the Span
iards and laid down their arms.
Grenyille was carried on board the
| flagship, where the officers Of the
! Spanish fleet assembled to do him hon
or, and in their own language he spoke
thar night his last words: Here die !,
Richard Grenville, with a joyful and
quiet mind. for l have ended my life
as a true soldier ought TO do. that hath
fought for his country. queen, religion
and honor; whereby my soul most joy
fully depsrteth out of this body; and
shall leave behind 1t an everlasting
fame of a valiant and true soldier that
hath done his duty as he was bound
to do"
With that he died. and his body was
committed to the sea. As to those who
survived Of his ships company, the
Spaniards treated them with honor;
sending them as free men home TO
England. But they believed that the
body Of Grenville being in the sea
raised that appalling cyclone that pres
entity destroyed the treasure fleet and
I its escort. In all one hundred sever
ships, including the Revenge.
So persisted the fourth armada.
making within five years n total loss
Of four hundred eighty-nine capital
ships. in all the greatest sea calamity
that ever befell a nation. Hear then
the comment of ~Linschoten, the Dutch
man. The Spaniards thought that
Fortune. or rather cod, was wholly
against them. Which is a sufficient
cause TO make the Spaniards out OF
heart and on the contrary to give the
Englishmen more courage, and to make
them holder. For they are victorious.
stout and valiant; and all their enter
prises do take so good an effect that
they are, hereby. become the lords and
masters Of the sea
The Portuguese were by no means
the first seamen 10 round the Cape Of
Good Hope. About six hundred years
3. c.. the Pharaoh Of Egypt, Nike, sent
a P~hoenleian squadron from the Red
/ Sea, to find their way round Africa and
I through Gibraltar strait. back TO the
Nile. when autumn anne they went
ashore, wherever they might happen
to be, and having sown q tract Of LAM
with corn. waited till the grain was fit
ia. eat. Having reaped it, they again
set sail and thus it came to pass that
two whole years went by, and it was
not until the third year that they dou-
! bled the Pillars Of Hercules, and made
I good their voyage home. On their re-
turn. they declared-for my part, de-
not believe them. but perhaps others
may-that in sailing round Lydia TAT
rica). they had the sun on their right
hand" ii. e. in the northern SKYE.