_Defiance_, which was admiral; the _Revenge_, vice-admiral; the
_Bonaventure_, commanded by Captain Crosse; the _Lion_, by George
Fenner; the _Foresight_, by M. Thomas Vavisour, and the _Crane_, by
Duffeild. The _Foresight_ and the _Crane_ being but small ships; only
the others were of the middle size; the rest, besides the bark _Ralegh_,
commanded by Captain Thin, were victualers and of small force or none.
The Spanish fleet, having shrouded their approach by reason of the
island, were now so soon at hand, as our ships had scarce time to way
their anchors, but some of them were driven to let slip their cables and
set sail. Sir Richard Grenville was the last weighed, to recover the men
that were upon the island, which otherwise had been lost. The Lord
Thomas with the rest very hardly recovered the wind, which Sir Richard
Grenville not being able to do was persuaded by the master and others to
cut his main sail and cast about, and to trust to the sailing of the
ship: for the squadron of Sivill were on his weather bow. But Sir
Richard utterly refused to turn from the enemy, alleging that he would
rather choose to die than to dishonour himself, his country, and Her
Majesties' ships, persuading his company that he would pass through the
two squadrons in despite of them, and enforce those of Sivill to give
him way. Which he performed upon divers of the foremost, who, as the
mariners term it, sprang their luffe and fell under the lee of the
_Revenge_. But the other course had been the better, and might right
well have been answered in so great an impossibility of prevailing.
Notwithstanding, out of the greatness of his mind he could not be
persuaded. In the meanwhile, as he attended those which were nearest
him, the great _San Philip_ being in the wind of him, and, coming
towards him, becalmed his sails in such sort as the ship could neither
make way nor feel the helm: so huge and high carged was the Spanish
ship, being of a thousand and five hundred tons; who afterlaid the
_Revenge_ aboard. When he was thus bereft of his sails, the ships that
were under his lee luffing up, also laid him aboard: of which the next
was the admiral of the _Biscaines_, a very mighty and puisant ship
commanded by Brittan Dona. The said _Philip_ carried three tire of
ordinance on a side and eleven pieces in every tire. She shot eight
forth right out of her chase, besides those of her stern ports.
After the _Revenge_ was entangled with this _Philip_, four other boarded
her; two on her larboard and two on her starboard. The fight thus
beginning at three of the clock in the afternoon continued very terrible
all that evening. But the great _San Philip_ having received the lower
tire of the _Revenge_ discharged with crossbar shot, shifted herself
with all diligence from her sides, utterly misliking her first
entertainment. Some say that the ship foundered, but we cannot report it
for truth unless we were assured. The Spanish ships were filled with
companies of soldiers, in some two hundred besides the mariners; in some
five, in others eight hundred. In ours there were none at all beside the
mariners, but the servants of the commanders and some few voluntary
gentlemen only. After many interchanged volleys of great ordinance and
small shot, the Spaniards deliberated to enter the _Revenge_, and made
divers attempts, hoping to force her by the multitudes of their armed
soldiers and musketiers, but were still repulsed again and again, and
at all times beaten back into their own ships or into the seas. In the
beginning of the fight the _George Noble_ of London, having received
some shot through her by the Armados, fell under the lee of the
_Revenge_, and asked Sir Richard what he would command him, being but
one of the victualers and of small force: Sir Richard bid him save
himself and leave him to his fortune. After the fight had thus without
intermission continued while the day lasted and some hours of the night,
many of our men were slain and hurt, and one of the great gallions of
the Armada and the admiral of the hulks both sunk, and in many other of
the Spanish ships great slaughter was made. Some write that Sir Richard
was very dangerously hurt almost in the beginning of the fight, and lay
speechless for a time ere he recovered. But two of the _Revenge's_ own
company, brought home in a ship of lime from the islands, examined by
some of the lords and others, affirmed that he was never so wounded as
that he forsook the upper deck till an hour before midnight; and then
being shot into the body with a musket as he was a-dressing, was again
shot into the head, and withal his Chirurgion wounded to death. This
agreeth also with an examination taken by Sir Frances Godolphin, of four
other mariners of the same ship being returned, which examination, the
said Sir Frances sent unto Master William Killigrue, of Her Majesties'
privy chamber.
But to return to the fight; the Spanish ships which attempted to board
the _Revenge_, as they were wounded and beaten off so always others came
in their places, she having never less than two mighty gallions by her
sides and aboard her. So that ere the morning, from three of the clock
the day before, there had fifteen several Armados assailed her; and all
so ill approved their entertainment, as they were by the break of day
far more willing to hearken to a composition, than hastily to make any
more assaults or entries. But as the day encreased so our men decreased,
and as the light grew more and more by so much more grew our
discomforts. For none appeared in sight but enemies, saving one small
ship called the _Pilgrim_, commanded by Jacob Whiddon, who hovered all
night to see the success; but in the morning, bearing with the
_Revenge_, was hunted like a hare amongst many ravenous hounds, but
escaped.
All the powder of the _Revenge_ to the last barrel was now spent, all
her pikes broken, forty of her best men slain and the most part of the
rest hurt. In the beginning of the fight she had but one hundred free
from sickness, and four score and ten sick, laid in hold upon the
ballast. A small troop to man such a ship, and a weak garrison to resist
so mighty an army. By those hundred all was sustained, the volleys,
boardings and enterings of fifteen ships of war, besides those which
beat her at large. On the contrary, the Spanish were always supplied
with soldiers brought from every squadron: all manner of arms and powder
at will. Unto ours there remained no comfort at all, no hope, no supply
either of ships, men, or weapons; the masts all beaten overboard, all
her tackle cut asunder, her upper work altogether rased, and in effect
evened she was with the water, but the very foundation or bottom of a
ship, nothing being left overhead either for flight or defence. Sir
Richard finding himself in this distress, and unable any longer to make
resistance, having endured in this fifteen hours' fight the assault of
fifteen several Armadoes, all by turns aboard him, and by estimation
eight hundred shot of great artillery, besides many assaults and
entries, and that himself and the ship must needs be possessed by the
enemy, who were now all cast in a ring round about him, the _Revenge_
not able to move one way or other but as she was moved with the waves
and billows of the sea, commanded the master-gunner, whom he knew to be
a most resolute man, to split and sink the ship, that thereby nothing
might remain of glory or victory to the Spaniards, seeing in so many
hours' fight and with so great a navy they were not able to take her
having had fifteen hours' time, fifteen thousand men, and fifty and
three sail of men-of-war to perform it withal, and persuaded the
company, or as many as he could induce, to yield themselves unto God,
and to the mercy of none else; but as they had, like valiant, resolute
men, repulsed so many enemies, they should not now shorten the honour of
their nation by prolonging their own lives for a few hours or a few
days. The master-gunner readily condescended and divers others, but the
captain and the master were of another opinion, and besought Sir Richard
to have care of them, alleging that the Spaniards would be as ready to
entertain a composition as they were willing to offer the same; and that
there being divers sufficient and valiant men yet living and whose
wounds were not mortal, they might do their country and prince
acceptable service hereafter. And (that where Sir Richard had alleged
that the Spaniards should never glory to have taken one ship of Her
Majesties', seeing they had so long and so notably defended themselves)
they answered that the ship had six foot water in hold, three shot under
water which were so weakly stopped, as with the first working of the sea
she must needs sink, and was besides so crushed and bruised as she could
never be removed out of the place.
And as the matter was thus in dispute and Sir Richard refusing to
hearken to any of those reasons, the master of the _Revenge_ (while the
captain wan unto him all the greater party) was conveyed aboard the
general _Don Alfonso Bassan_, who, finding none over-hastie to enter the
_Revenge_ again, doubting least Sir Richard would have blown them up and
himself, and perceiving by the report of the master of the _Revenge_ his
dangerous disposition, yielded that all their lives should be saved, the
company sent for England, and the better sort to pay such reasonable
ransom as their estate would bear, and in the mean season to be free
from gally and imprisonment. To this he so much the rather condescended
as well as I have said, for fear of further loss and mischief to
themselves, as also for the desire he had to recover Sir Richard
Grenville, whom for his notable valour he seemed greatly to honour and
admire.
When this answer was returned and that safety of life was promised, the
common sort being now at the end of their peril, the most drew back from
Sir Richard and the master-gunner, being no hard matter to disuade men
from death to life. The master-gunner, finding himself and Sir Richard
thus prevented and mastered by the greater number, would have slain
himself with a sword had he not been by force withheld and locked in his
cabin. Then the general sent many boats aboard the _Revenge_, and divers
of our men, fearing Sir Richard's disposition, stole away aboard the
general and other ships. Sir Richard thus overmatched, was sent unto by
Alfonso Bassan to remove out of the _Revenge_, the ship being marvellous
unsavoury, filled with blood and bodies of dead and wounded men like a
slaughter house. Sir Richard answered that he might do with his body
what he list, for he esteemed it not, and as he was carried out of the
ship he swooned, and reviving again, desired the company to pray for
him. The general used Sir Richard with all humanity, and left nothing
unattempted that tended to his recovery, highly commending his valour
and worthiness, and greatly bewailed the danger wherein he was, being
unto them a rare spectacle, and a resolution seldom approved. To see one
ship turne toward so many enemies, to endure the charge and boarding of
so many huge Armados, and to resist and repel the assaults and entries
of so many soldiers, all which and more is confirmed by a Spanish
captain of the same Armada, and a present actor in the fight, who being
severed from the rest in a storm, was by the _Lyon_ of London, a small
ship, taken, and is now prisoner in London.
The general commander of the Armada was Don Alphonso Bassan, brother to
the Marquesse of Santa Cruce. The admiral of the Biscaine squadron was
Britan Dona; of the squadron of Sivill, Marques of Arumburch. The hulks
and fly-boats were commanded by Luis Cutino. There were slain and
drowned in this fight well near two thousand of the enemies and two
especial commanders, Don Luis de sant John and Don George de Prunaria de
Mallaga, as the Spanish captain confesseth, besides divers others of
special account, whereof as yet report is not made.
The admiral of the hulks and the ascention of Sivill were both sunk by
the side of the _Revenge_; one other recovered the road of Saint Nichels
and sunk also there; a fourth ran herself with the shore to save her
men. Sir Richard died, as it is said, the second or third day aboard the
general, and was by them greatly bewailed. What became of his body,
whether it was buried in the sea or on the land, we know not: the
comfort that remaineth to his friends is that he hath ended his life
honourably in respect of the reputation won to his nation and country,
and of the same to his posterity, and that being dead he hath not
outlived his own honour.
For the rest of Her Majesties' ships that entered not so far into the
fight as the _Revenge_, the reasons and causes were these. There were of
them but six in all, whereof two but small ships; the _Revenge_ engaged
past recovery; the Island of Flores was on the one side, fifty-three
sail of the Spanish divided into squadrons, on the other, all as full
filled with soldiers as they could contain. Almost the one half of our
men sick and not able to serve; the ships grown foul, unroomaged, and
scarcely able to bear any sail for want of ballast, having been six
months at the sea before. If all the rest had entered all had been lost.
For the very hugeness of the Spanish fleet, if no other violence had
been offered, would have crushed them between them into shivers. Of
which the dishonour and loss to the queen had been far greater than the
spoil or harm that the enemy could any way have received.
Notwithstanding, it is very true that the Lord Thomas would have entered
between the squadrons, but the rest would not condescend; and the master
of his own ship offered to leap into the sea rather than to conduct that
Her Majesties' ship and the rest to be a prey to the enemy where there
was no hope nor possibility either of defence or victory. Which also in
my opinion had ill-sorted or answered the discretion and trust of a
general to commit himself and his charge to an assured destruction
without any hope or any likelihood of prevailing, thereby to diminish
the strength of Her Majesties' Navy and to enrich the pride and glory of
the enemy.
[The story of Sir Richard Grenville's last fight has been told many
times in prose and verse. Sir Walter Raleigh tells it in the prose epic
from which the foregoing is taken; Froude made it the subject of one of
his essays, Gerald Massey and Lord Tennyson have both exploited it in
ballads of power and beauty. These ballads are too long for quotation
here, but there are some stanzas in Gerald Massey's poem which may be
given.
"Signalled the English admiral,
'Weigh or cut anchors.' For
A Spanish fleet bore down in all
The majesty for war,
Athwart our tack for many a mile,
As there we lay off Florez Isle,
With crews half sick; all tired of toil.
"Eleven of our twelve ships escaped;
Sir Richard stood alone!
Though they were three and fifty sail--
A hundred men to one--
The old Sea Rover would not run,
So long as he had man or gun;
But--he could die when all was done.
* * * * *
"Ship after ship like broken waves
That wash up on a rock,
Those mighty galleons fall back foiled
And shattered from the shock.
With fire she answers all their blows;
Again, again in pieces strows
The girdle round her as they close.
"Through all that night the great white storm
Of worlds in silence rolled;
Sirius with green-azure sparkle,
Mars in ruddy gold.
Heaven looked with stillness terrible
Down on a fight most fierce and fell--
A sea transfigured into hell.
"Some know not they are wounded till
'Tis slippery where they stand;
Then each one tighter grips his steel
As 'twere salvation's hand.
Grim faces glow through lurid night
With sweat of spirit shining bright:
Only the dead on deck turn white.
"At daybreak the flame-picture fades
In blackness and in blood;
There, after fifteen hours' fight,
The unconquered sea-king stood,
Defying all the powers of Spain:
Fifteen armadas hurled in vain,
And fifteen hundred foemen slain.
"About that little bark _Revenge_
The baffled Spaniards ride
At distance. Two of their good ships
Were sunken at her side;
The rest lie round her in a ring
As round the dying lion-king
The dogs afraid of his death-spring.
* * * * *
"Old heroes who could gladly do,
As they could greatly dare;
A vesture very glorious
Their shining spirits wear,
Of noble deeds! God give us grace,
That we may see such face to face,
In our great day that comes apace."
We will only add here that the _Revenge_ foundered a few days after the
fight with two hundred Spaniards on board her, and conclude with Sir
Richard Grenville's last words, "Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a
joyful and quiet mind, for that I have ended my life as a true soldier
ought to do, fighting for his queen, religion, and honour; my soul
willingly departing from this body, leaving behind the lasting fame of
having behaved as any valiant soldier is in his duty bound to
do."--ED.]
THE STORY OF ADMIRAL BLAKE.
BY JOHN CAMPBELL.
Robert Blake, who became the admiral of the Commonwealth, was the eldest
son of Mr. Humphrey Blake, a Spanish merchant who, having acquired a
considerable fortune for the times in which he lived, purchased a small
estate near Bridgewater, in which neighbourhood his family had been long
settled.
Robert was born in the month of August, 1598, and was educated at a free
school in Bridgewater. He afterwards removed to Oxford, where he was
first a member of St. Alban's Hall and next of Wadham College. Having
taken a degree and met with more than one disappointment in his
endeavours to obtain academical preferment, he left the university after
a stay of seven years.
During his residence in Oxford he displayed a temper usually grave, and
in appearance morose, but inclined at times and with particular friends
to be very cheerful, though still with a tincture of severity that
disposed him to bear hard upon the pride of courtiers and the powers of
churchmen; which rendered him very agreeable company to the good fellows
of those days. This is certain, that his reputation for probity and his
known aversion to persecution caused the Puritans to promote his
election as a burgess for Bridgewater in the parliament which sat in
April 1640.
This assembly was dissolved too early for Blake to make any discovery
therein of his talents as a senator; and in the long parliament, which
sat soon after, he lost his election. When the war broke out between
the king and the parliament he declared for the latter, and took arms
very early in their service; but where, and in what capacity, is not
very clear. However, he was very soon made a captain of dragoons, in
which position he showed himself as able and active an officer as any in
the service; and as such was constantly employed upon occasions when
boldness or dexterity were requisite.
In 1643 he was at Bristol, under the command of Colonel Fiennes, who
entrusted him with a little fort on the line, in which he first gave the
world a proof of his military prowess; for, on July 26th, when Prince
Rupert attacked that important place, and the governor had agreed to
surrender it upon articles, Blake still held out his fort and killed
several of the king's forces. This exasperated Prince Rupert to such a
degree that he talked of hanging him, and would probably have carried
out his threat had not some friends interposed and excused the young
officer on account of his want of experience in war, and then prevailed
upon him to give up the fort.
After this Blake served in Somersetshire under the command of Popham,
who was governor of Lyme, to whose regiment he was lieutenant-colonel.
While here, in conjunction with Sir Robert Pye, he surprised Taunton for
the parliament, capturing ten pieces of cannon and a great deal of
ammunition. In 1664 he was made governor of the town, an important
appointment, as Taunton contained the only garrison the parliament had
in the west. The works about it, however, were far from being strong,
and the garrison was by no means numerous; yet by keeping a strict
discipline, and treating the townsmen well, he made shift to keep it,
though no great care was taken to furnish him with supplies, and he was
often besieged and blocked up by the king's forces.
At length General Goring attacked Taunton with nearly ten thousand men,
carried all the outworks, and actually took a part of the town. Blake,
however, held the rest of it and the castle with wonderful obstinacy
till relief came; for which extraordinary service the parliament gave
the garrison a bounty of two thousand pounds, and honoured Colonel
Blake with a present of five hundred pounds. All who have preserved the
memory of the signal events in this unhappy war allow this to have been
a singularly gallant and soldier-like action.
In April, 1646, Colonel Blake marched with a detachment from his
garrison, and reduced Dunster Castle, a seat belonging to the ancient
family of Lutterel, the troops posted therein having given great
disturbance to the country. This was the last military achievement he
performed during the Civil War. On the 24th of December following, the
parliament ordered five hundred pounds to be paid to him for disbanding
some forces. When the parliament voted that no further addresses should
be made to the king, Blake, as Governor of Taunton, joined in an address
of thanks to the House of Commons for having taken this step.
It is not easy to guess what induced the parliament to make choice of
Blake, who had always served as a horse-officer, to take the supreme
command of the fleet, but on February 12th, 1648-9, he was appointed one
of the commissioners of the navy, and upon the 21st an Act was passed,
appointing him, in conjunction with Deane and Popham, to command the
fleet. His first service was driving Prince Rupert's fleet from the
Irish coast, and then following him into the Mediterranean. This gave
his masters high satisfaction, for it not only put an end to the
piratical war in which the prince was engaged, and which did so much
damage to trade, but also inspired respect among the powers of Europe
for the young Commonwealth of England.
In the month of February, 1651, Blake, on his return homewards, fell in
with a French man-of-war of forty guns; when a characteristic incident
occurred which certainly deserves to be particularly mentioned. The
admiral commanded the French captain on board him, and asked him if he
was willing to lay down his sword? He answered that he was not; upon
which, Blake generously bade him return to his ship and fight it out as
long as he was able. The captain took him at his word, fought him
bravely for about two hours, and then submitting, went again on board
Blake's ship, first kissed him and then presented his sword to him upon
his knees. This ship, with four more, the admiral sent into England; and
not long after arriving at Plymouth with his squadron, there received
the thanks of the parliament for his vigilance and valour, and was
constituted one of the lords-wardens of the Cinque Ports.
In the March following, Colonel Blake, Colonels Popham and Deane, or any
two of them, were again appointed by act of parliament to be admirals
and generals of the fleet for the year ensuing; in which year Blake
reduced the islands of Scilly, Guernsey, and Jersey to the obedience of
the parliament; and, as a new mark of honour, was, on November 25th,
elected one of the council of state. When the necessity of a Dutch war
became apparent, the parliament gave the highest testimony of their
sense of his merit and of their entire confidence in his conduct by
constituting him, in March 1652, sole general of the fleet.
The story of the Dutch war is told in a separate chapter, where justice
is done to Blake's prowess as admiral, and it is only necessary here to
give such incidents as bring out his qualities as a man.
Just before the first battle in the Downs, which took place on May 19th,
1652, Blake observed that Van Tromp, the Dutch admiral, bore nearer to
his fleet than he had any occasion to do, and so saluted him with two
guns without ball, to put him in mind of striking sail; upon which the
Dutchman, in contempt, fired on the contrary side. Blake then fired a
second and a third gun, which Van Tromp answered with a broadside, and
the English admiral perceiving his intention to fight, detached himself
from the rest of the fleet to treat with him upon the point of honour,
to prevent unnecessary effusion of blood and a national quarrel. As
Blake approached nearer to the Dutchman, Van Tromp, and the rest of his
fleet, contrary to the law of nations, fired on him with whole
broadsides. Blake was in his cabin drinking with some officers, little
expecting to be thus saluted, when the shot broke the windows of the
ship and shattered the stern; which put him into a vehement passion, so
that curling his whiskers, as he used to do whenever he was angry, he
commanded his men to answer the Dutch in their kind, saying, when his
heat was somewhat over, "he took it very ill of Van Tromp that he should
take his ship for a disorderly house, and break his windows." Blake
singly sustained the shock of the Dutch fleet for some time, till his
own ships and the squadron under Major Bourne joined him; and then the
engagement grew hot on both sides, and bloody on the side of the enemy,
till night put an end to it.