Consisting of around 130 ships, 8,000 sailors and 18,000 soldiers, 1,500 brass guns and 1,000 iron guns, it was termed the 'Great and Most Fortunate Navy'. The captain wrote in his accounts that some Irish clans helped the stranded sailors and even managed to secretly stow some of them back to Spain, while others were said to have been butchered to death by the locals. The Spanish Armada, a large naval fleet sent by King Philip II of Spain to invade England, was engaged by the English fleet, under the command of Lord Howard of. An Armada, the Spanish word for a battle fleet, was prepared to invade England, defeat its armies and depose Queen Elizabeth. The accounts suggest a mixed reception by the Irish when he and his fellow Spanish sailors came ashore. The Spanish ships sailed around Scotland before making it to the west coast of Ireland in autumn 1588, where they were anchored.Īccording to the diary of Francisco de Cuéllar, a captain aboard one of the Spanish ships, after five days the fleet was ravaged by severe storms.Īpproximately one third of the Spanish fleet was destroyed in the Atlantic ocean three of the ships were moored off the coast of Streedagh Strand, in what is now County Sligo.ĭe Cuéllar kept a detailed account of the shipwreck and the time he spent in Ireland. The San Martín, Medina-Sidonia’s flagship. A week of running battles in the English Channel culminated. The Armada continued eastwards and then strong winds pushed the fleet northwards up the east coast of England. In 1588 the English Navy defeated one of the greatest fleets ever assembled the Spanish Armada. There were two duels, one near Portland Bill and another off the coast of the Isle of Wight, but both battles ended in stalemate. Over the following days, English ships continued to pursue the Spanish Armada as it headed eastwards along the English Channel, according to the website.
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