In Ours, There Were None Besides The Mariners, Except The
Servants Of The Commanders, And Some Few Gentlemen Volunteers.
After interchanging many vollies of great ordnance and small shot, the
Spaniards deliberated to enter the Revenge by boarding,
And made several
attempts, hoping to carry her by the multitudes of their armed soldiers
and musketeers, but were still repulsed again and again, being on every
attempt beaten back into their own ships or into the sea. In the
beginning of the fight, the George Noble of London being only one of the
victuallers, and of small force, having received some shot through her
from the Spanish _armadas_, fell under the lee of the Revenge, and the
master of her asked Sir Richard what he was pleased to command him; on
which Sir Richard bad him save himself as he best might, leaving him to
his fortune. After the fight had thus continued without intermission,
while the day lasted, and some hours of the night, many of our men were
slain and hurt; one of the great galeons of the armada and the admiral
of the hulks both sunk, and a great slaughter had taken place in many of
the other great Spanish ships. Some allege 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 men belonging to the
Revenge, who came home in a ship of Lyme from the islands, and were
examined by some of the lords and others, affirmed, that he was never so
much wounded as to forsake the upper deck till an hour before midnight,
and being then shot in the body by a musket ball, was shot again in the
head as the surgeon was dressing him, the surgeon himself being at the
same time wounded to death. This also agrees with an examination of four
other returned mariners of the same ship, taken before Sir Francis
Godolphin, and sent by him to master William Killegrue of her majestys
privy chamber.
To return to the fight: As the Spanish ships which attempted to board
the Revenge were wounded and beaten off, so always others came up in
their places, she never having less than two mighty galeons by her sides
and close on board her; so that ere morning, from three o'clock of the
day before, she had been successively assailed by no less than fifteen
several armadas or great ships of war; and all of them had so ill
approved their entertainment, that, by break of day, they were far more
willing to hearken to a composition, than hastily to make any more
assaults or entries for boarding. But as the day advanced, so our men
decreased in number, and as the light grew more and more, by so much
more increased the discomforts of our men. For now nothing appeared in
sight but enemies, save one small ship called the Pilgrim, commanded by
Jacob Whiddon, who hovered all night to see what might be the event;
but, bearing up towards the Revenge in the morning, was hunted like a
hare among so many ravenous hounds, yet escaped.
All the powder of the Revenge was now spent to the very last barrel, all
her pikes broken, forty of her best men slain, and most part of the rest
wounded. In the beginning of the fight, she had 90 of her men lying sick
on the ballast in the hold, and only 100 capable of duty, a small crew
for such a ship, and a weak garrison to resist so mighty an army. By
this brave hundred was the whole of this hot fight sustained, the
volleys, boardings, assaults, and entries, from fifteen great ships of
war all full of men, besides those which had cannonaded her from a
distance. On the contrary, the Spanish ships were always supplied with
fresh soldiers from the several squadrons of this vast fleet, and had
all manner of arms and powder at will; while to our men there remained
no hope or comfort, no supply either of ships, men, weapons, or powder.
The masts were all beaten overboard; all her tackle was cut asunder; her
upper works all battered to pieces, and in effect evened with the water,
nothing but the hull or bottom of the ship remaining, nothing being left
over-head for flight or for defence.
Finding his ship in this distress, and altogether unable for any longer
resistance, after fifteen hours constant fighting against fifteen great
ships of war which assailed him in turns, having received by estimation
800 shot of great ordnance, besides many assaults and entries; and
considering that he and his ship must now soon be in possession of the
enemy, who had arranged their ships in a ring round about the Revenge,
which was now unable to move any way, except as acted on by the waves;
Sir Richard called for his master gunner, whom he knew to be a most
resolute man, and commanded him to split and sink the ship, that nothing
of glory or victory might remain to the enemy, who with so great a navy,
and in so long a time, were unable to take her. They had fifty-three
ships of war, and above 10,000 men, and had been engaged against this
single ship for fifteen hours. At the same time, Sir Richard endeavoured
to prevail upon as many of the company as he could influence, to commit
themselves to the mercy of God, and not of their enemies, since they had
like valiant men repulsed so many enemies, urging them not now to
obscure their honour and that of their nation, for the sake of
prolonging their lives a few days. The master gunner and various others
of the crew readily assented to this desperate resolution; but the
captain and master were quite of an opposite opinion, and conjured Sir
Richard to desist from his desperate proposal; alleging that the
Spaniards would be as ready to agree to a capitulation as they to offer
it; and begged him to consider, that there still were many valiant men
still living in the ship, and others whose wounds might not be mortal,
who might be able to do acceptable service to their queen and country
hereafter.
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