- Replenishing The English Fleet: August 22 -23, 1588.
- Excerpts from Dispatches About the State of the Spanish Armada, October – November, 1588.
- Elizabeth Celebrates the Victory Over the Armada, November 24, 1588.
I would my counsel had taken place, that the forces by land
had been kept together till the full of the moon had been past.[1]
After weeks of battles at sea, the Admiral needs to
replenish his fleet in order to be prepared should the Armada reassemble and
return to complete its mission.
The resources to pay and supply an army in the field are an
enormous drain on the Royal exchequer. They must be released the moment they are
no longer necessary.
The “Spanish army” — actually an army of mercenaries from
various countries led by the Duke of Parma
— have been gathered in the Netherlands for an invasion of England for
over a month — another very serious error on the part of Parma and his Spanish
allies. It is this army for which the Armada has been formed. It is supposed to
clear the seas for the invasion force to pass the English Channel on Spanish
transports.
Already the army is pillaging supplies from the countryside.
The promised funds from the Pope have
not arrived to pay them. The Duke can neither feed nor pay them. He has tried
to hold them together as long as possible in expectation of the transports. The
transports do arrive. The English are aware of the danger and send fire-ships
toward them. They escape but at the price of having to cut loose their anchors
and chains. They will no longer serve for transport. The troops are getting
especially surly. Those that have not deserted must be dismissed.
Elizabeth’s Flemish spies have been keeping her Court
apprised. If the Admiral is informed, he is also aware that rumors place the
bulk of the Armada in any number of locations. He has sent a plan to the
Council
to bring our men, as many as conveniently we can, ashore, and
there to relieve them with fresh victuals, and to supply such other their wants
as we can; and upon the hearing or discovery of the Spanish fleet, we shall be
able, with the help of soldiers from the shore, for to be ready within a day
for the service.[2]
It is his job to be prepared for any eventuality. Foremost,
he must arrange to have the resources in place for whatever plan will be
adopted.
Logistics are everything. They are one of the major reasons
the English will win. But they are difficult to manage. Messengers are racing
across the country and Channel with letters.
The absence of the Roebuck doth hinder us wonderfully for
lack of the powder in her.[3]
Vice-Admiral Drake’s ship The Roebuck has loaded a large
amount of gun powder and shot, at Harwich, ordered to Dover by the Admiral. His
fleet is desperately short there after so long battling at sea.
But the rumor that the largest part of the Armada has sailed
north off the Scottish coast is more than a rumor. The persistent SW wind has
left it no other safe choice.
The Roebuck is not yet come to the fleet, but, as I
understand, she is employed by my Lord of Huntingdon in the north service,
whereby we are disappointed of the powder in her.[4]
The Roebuck has been called off its delivery in order to
participate in shadowing and possibly engaging above one hundred ships.
Fortunately, the Spanish ships have have even bigger
problems. They have been supplied by profiteers with spoiled food. Their sailors
are retching. Only a small amount of their provision is fit to eat. They are
running out of potable water. They are sick and desperately hungry — in no
condition to fight. They, too, are desperately short of powder and shot. The
only safe destination circumstance will allow is neutral Norway.
Of course, the Spanish have impossible supply lines into the
bargain. The English coordinate steady resupply of their ships. They’ve been
developing a Naval supply and repair system for years. They are fighting in
their home waters — rotate into English ports for provisions. Captured Spanish
ships are expeditiously offloaded in those ports into English ships and
warehouses.
Not that the system is perfect:
Mr. Barrey is dead, and we cannot learn where the pitch and
tar is become; nor no man now to deal for those things.[5]
The pitch and tar for ship maintenance had been the
responsibility of one man. No one else knows where it is stored, it would seem.
Every bit as important as shot and powder, pitch and tar,
toward a battle ship’s optimal performance was its supply of beer. So much so
that it, too, was a worthy subject of correspondence with so august a governmental figure as Francis Sir
Walsingham.
Mr. Darell hath been with me here, whom I have dealt withal;
and I perceive it hath been refused, and upon that there were some appointed to
taste it, and so found it to be sour,[6]
It was essential that
the matter be taken in hand at the highest level.
I perceive by Mr. Darell that the brewer excuseth it by the
want of hops. But, Sir, the mariners who have a conceit (and I think it true,
and so do all the captains here) that sour drink hath been a great cause of
this infection amongst us; and, Sir, for my own part I know not which way to
deal with the mariners to make them rest contented with sour beer, for nothing
doth displease them more.
Think what they may, even sour beer is not to be wasted. The
answer settled upon is to brew the sour beer a bit more and “to mix it with
other new beer, which I hope will do well.”
[1] Laughton,
John Knox, ed. State papers relating to the defeat of the Spanish Armada,
anno 1588 (1894). Howard to Walsingham, August 22. II.143.
[2] Howard
to Walsingham, August 22. Ibid, II.143.
[3]
Ibid., II.143.
[4] Howard
to the Council, August 22. Ibid, II.141-2.
[5] Howard
to Walsingham, August 23. Ibid, II.144.
[6] Howard
to Walsingham, August 26. Ibid, II.159, 160.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
No comments:
Post a Comment