The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1923-10-26
CAPTAINS OF
ADVENTURE
By ROGER POCOCK
By ROGER POCOCK
pyrightby SferruC Comp

in sleepless misery, no longer in line Of
battle, but huddled and flying. At the
straits they turned at bay with thirty
five hundred guns, but eight ships bore
down on fire, stampeding 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 the 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 fleet
for Spain. OF two hundred twenty
ships clearing not more than fifteen
arrived, the rest being drowned, burst
or taken" Storms and the English de-
stroyed that third armada.
The fourth year passed, marked by
hurricane in the Western Isles, and a
great increase of England's reckoning.
but the climax of SPANS undoing was
still to come 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 out thirty battle
ships to the Azores. There lay an
English squadron of sixteen vessels,
also in waiting for the treasure fleet,
20 %
cort, which carried no plumber worth
taking. Lord Towards vice admiral
was Sir Richard Grenville, command
ing brakes old flagship, the Revenge,
of seven hundred tons. This Grenville,
says Linschoten, was 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 skylarking 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 Granville threatened to hang him.
1t 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
whole fleet, engaging from first to last
thirteen ships of the line. She sank
two ships and well-nigh wrecked five
more, the Spaniards losing four hun
dred men in fight with seventy. Only
when their admiral lay shot through
the head, and their last gun was
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.
Granville 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
that night his last words: Here die /,
|
| quiet mind, for 1 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 departeth out of this body; and
shall leave behind it 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
| emily destroyed the treasure fleet and
| it's escort, in all one hundred seven
ships, including the Revenge.
So persisted the fourth armada,
| making within five years 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 God, 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 to round the Cape of
Good Hope. About six hundred years
B. G. the Pharaoh Of Egypt, Nike, sent
| Phoenician squadron from the Red
| Sea, to find their way round Africa and
through Gibraltar strait, back to the
Nile. "When autumn came they went
ashore, wherever they might happen
| to be, and having sown tract of land
with corn, waited till the grain was fit
to 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
good their voyage home. On their re-
turn, they declared-for my part, I do
not believe them, but perhaps others
may-that in sailing round Lydia CAT
rica), they had the sun on their right
hand" q. e. in the northern SKYE.