For In The Revenge, There Were Ninety Sick; In The
Bonaventure, Not So Many In Health As Could Hand Her
Mainsail, insomuch,
that unless twenty men had been taken from a bark of Sir George Careys
which was sunk, and
Appointed into her, she had hardly been able to get
back to England. The rest of the ships for the most part were in little
better state.
The names of her majestys ships were as follows: The Defiance, admiral,
the Revenge, vice-admiral, the Bonaventure commanded by captain Crosse,
the Lion by George Fenner, the Foresight by Thomas Vavasour, and the
Crane by Duffild. The Foresight and Crane were small ships, the other
four were of the middle size. All the others, except the bark Raleigh,
commanded by captain Thin, were victuallers, and of small or no force.
The approach of the Spanish fleet being concealed by means of the
island, they were soon at hand, so that our ships had scarce time to
weigh their anchors, and some even were obliged to slip their cables and
set sail. Sir Richard Grenville was the last to weigh, that he might
recover the men who were a land on the island, who had otherwise been
lost. The lord Thomas Howard, with the rest of the fleet, very hardly
recovered the wind, which Sir Richard was unable to do; on which his
master and others endeavoured to persuade him to cut his main sail and
cast about, trusting to the swift sailing of his ship, as the squadron
of Seville was on his weather bow. But Sir Richard absolutely refused to
turn from the enemy, declaring he would rather die than dishonour
himself, his country, and her majestys ship, and persuaded his company
that he would be able to pass through the two squadrons in spite of
them, and force those of Seville to give him way. This he certainly
performed upon divers of the foremost, who, as the sailors term it,
sprang their luff, and fell under the lee of the Revenge. The other
course had certainly been the better, and might very properly have been
adopted under so great impossibility of prevailing over such heavy odds;
but, out of the greatness of his mind, he could not be prevailed on to
have the semblance of fleeing.
In the meantime, while Sir Richard attended to those ships of the enemy
that were nearest him and in his way, the great San Philip being to
windward of him, and coming down towards him, becalmed his sails in such
sort that his ship could neither make way nor feel the helm, so huge and
high was the Spanish ship, being of fifteen hundred tons, and which
presently laid the Revenge on board. At this time, bereft of his sails,
the ships that had fallen under his lee, luffed up and laid him on board
also, the first of these that now came up being the vice-admiral of the
Biscay squadron, a very mighty and puissant ship, commanded by
Brittandona.
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