All language subtitles for Combat.Ships.S02E06.Galleon.And.Privateers.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BLOOM_track3_[eng]

This time on Combat Ships...

Pirates and galleons
battle on the high seas.

It was a time of seafaring legends.

Drake is one of
the most effective navigators

as well as one of
the most effective pirates

ever seen in maritime history!

Of daring voyages
and buccaneering raids...

It's dressed up
as a voyage of exploration,

a voyage to find new places,

but it really is an attempt
to go out and plunder the Spanish.

That would shape naval history

and set the stage for one of
the greatest sea battles of all.

The English for the first time
can really bring their guns to bear

and taking it in turns
to pummel the Spanish ships.

The Spanish Armada.

Combat ships.

Fast. Effective.

The mission
is pure James Bond espionage.

Deadly.

Japan is willing to throw the dice

to engage just about every aspect
of their military force

in a climactic decisive battle
to stop the United States.

They have changed the world.

Warships have been key factors
in global history

from the beginning of civilisation
to the present day.

Thanks to clever design,

raw firepower
and the heroism of their crews.

In the 16th century,

large sailing ships ruled the seas.

Daring sea captains
had reached the new world

and were bringing vast wealth
back to Europe.

The key player was Spain.

It funnelled riches
from its new territories

in the coastal regions
of the Caribbean

known as the Spanish Main.

Spain grew wealthy and powerful.

England, on the other hand,

ruled by Queen Elizabeth I,

was small and weak.

But English seafarers
were determined not to miss out.

Two in particular
would leave their mark.

Francis Drake and John Hawkins.

The English
had not got to the Americas first.

They had to break in.

Hawkins sets the trend.

He has his own fleet, essentially,
of warships.

So, he is leading the way
in the seadog movement,

if you want to call them that.

One might call it
the English piracy movement.

Francis Drake
was Hawkins' second cousin

and grew up with Hawkins' family.

He too took to the sea.

In 1562,

Hawkins and Drake left Plymouth
to enter a new lucrative endeavour.

The trade in human lives.

Enslaved people
were seen as a product.

There was no distinction

between a cargo load
of precious stones,

a cargo load of exotic woods

and a cargo load of Africans.

They all had
the same emotional value.

From mines to plantations
to household servants,

Spain's colonies
ran on slave labour.

The Spanish had run out of
indigenous people to enslave

and exploit

and were
desperately looking for more.

So, European merchant ships

started bringing slaves
from Africa to the Caribbean.

You have a situation

where individuals would be removed
from everything they knew,

find themselves
on board a slaving ship,

pressed closely together,
literally cheek by jowl.

They would be in those conditions
for up to a month, maybe more,

crossing the Atlantic,

after which they would be sold on
into enforced servitude.

Spain controlled the trade

and its profits.

They only let other Catholic powers
like Portugal join in.

The Protestant English
were excluded

but Hawkins and Drake wanted in.

In 1562,

they took three ships and hijacked
a Portuguese slave vessel

off the coast of Sierra Leone.

Its cargo,
over 300 enslaved Africans.

John Hawkins
is fundamentally a pirate.

He is ceasing the opportunity
to kidnap 300 people,

most of whom he will sell
in the Spanish Caribbean.

Once Hawkins
has returned from this first voyage,

it's quite clear that this is
an eminently profitable enterprise.

They were the first Englishmen

to deal in the slave trade.

A fact masked
by their later triumphs.

The promise of huge returns
led many to invest

in Hawkins' future voyages,

including the queen herself.

Elizabeth I went as far as

not simply investing
in Hawkins' future voyages

but supplying a ship,

a 700-ton ship,
the Jesus of Lubeck.

The Jesus of Lubeck

was a remnant
of the old English Navy,

a carrack.

These were the versatile
merchant and combat ships

Europeans used to make
the long voyages to the new world

and beyond

from the 14th to early 16th century.

They were large ships

with wide hulls
built more for storage than speed.

With his new flagship,

Hawkins made a second slave voyage

with even bigger profits

but his venture
was about to come to a halt...

In September 1568,

on his third slaving voyage,

Hawkins, with five vessels,

took the port of San Juan de Ulua
near Veracruz, Mexico.

To their surprise,

a Spanish fleet of galleons
arrived soon after.

Galleons were Spain's
newest and strongest combat ships.

Their streamlined hulls
and a lower forecastle

solved the carrack's
speed and steering problems

and they were built to fight.

The new hull shape
made them a more stable platform

for artillery

while high sterncastles
still gave soldiers an advantage

in close combat

Hawkins and his fleet
were outclassed and outnumbered.

But his men controlled the port's
shore batteries

so the English and Spanish
agreed on a truce.

It's in the interest of both sides

not to push things
to a conclusion too quickly

but the Spaniards certainly decided
they would do something about it

while the English were here

before they could get away.

Therefore,
they take over the shore batteries,

they have the guns in their ships
and they open fire on the English

Breaking the truce,

the Spanish soldiers
stormed aboard the English ships.

This is a typical
mixed capability battle of the time.

The key factors are boarding a ship,

entering it,

fighting on board with swords
and small arms and so on.

As well, artillery is used
to soften up the enemy.

The Spanish overwhelmed the English.

Only two ships narrowly escaped,

Drake on one, Hawkins on the other.

The English lose.

The Jesus of Lubeck
was actually a royal ship.

This was an officially sponsored
illegal slaving expedition

and the Spanish are showing,
"Look, this is our territory!

Stop it!"

The Spanish galleons
had made a powerful statement.

The attack at Vera Cruz
is something

that nobody who was present
ever forgot.

As far as Hawkins was concerned,

the Spanish had broken their word,
they were untrustworthy,

they were not gentlemen

and therefore they could be treated
with contempt.

Hawkins and Drake
fled back to England.

The experience was enough
to convince Hawkins to retire

from his career as a seadog

but he encouraged Drake
to take revenge on the Spanish

as a privateer.

In a nutshell,

a privateer is a sanctioned pirate,

is a pirate that has the blessings
of government and officialdom.

Drake's blessing
came from Queen Elizabeth.

Privateers were privately owned
combat ships.

They were a low risk way
to antagonise and weaken her rival,

the Spanish King Phillip II,

without declaring war.

These privateers like Drake
are off in the Caribbean

raiding the Spanish

but when the Spanish
come and complain about it

the queen can almost say...

"Well, no, they're not doing it
with my permission."

Nobody really believes this

but she has
this kind of deniability.

The charade
maintained a fragile peace

even as privateers like Drake
plundered Spanish ships.

Drake is highly aggressive
against the Spanish.

He takes a lot of prizes from them,

he makes a lot of money
from acting as a licensed predator.

Drake would make
millions in today's money

from his raids in the Caribbean.

His legend as a fearsome pirate
was growing.

The Spanish gave him a nickname.

El Draque. The Dragon.

He was a marked man

and he was about to cement it

with one of the greatest voyages
in history!

In the 1570s,

Francis Drake took revenge
for the Spanish ambush at Veracruz

by stealing their treasure.

His cousin, John Hawkins,

sought to get even
in a very different way.

With tensions
between Spain and England building,

England needed a strong navy.

Hawkins ensured it had one.

The navy that Hawkins inherits
is in a stage of evolution.

There's a relatively small number
of quite old ships

so the idea
is to build up a core navy

of a decent number of ships.

Together with master shipbuilders,

Hawkins designed a new type of vessel,

a combat ship that would
play to England's strengths

and take on the powerful
Spanish galleons

that had beaten him at Veracruz.

Hawkins was able to draw
on his experience as a privateer

in terms of

how the Elizabethan Navy
can advance.

So, he understands
the advantages of faster ships,

of having more cannon
on board a ship

to stand off
and bombard an enemy.

The result,
the race-built galleon.

A lean, fast and manoeuvrable ship
armed with powerful guns.

Hawkins sought the best shipwrights
in the country

to help perfect the concept.

The most influential of these
was Matthew Baker.

So, Matthew Baker
was one of the great shipwrights

of the Tudor period

and what we have here
is his document

that he put together
really over his lifetime

thinking about
how ships could be better designed,

how they could be more manoeuvrable,

how they could be more efficient.

Baker based his designs

on mathematical
and natural principles.

Well, one of the most famous
and important images in the book

is found here

and it's an image of a ship

which, slightly unusually,

has a fish superimposed
on the hull of the ship

and it looks
really quite surreal.

Why did Matthew Baker
draw it in this way?

If you can replicate
the shape of the fish

cutting through the water,

you've got both a natural

but also a proportionate way
of responding to the need for speed.

Compared to the original galleons,

which were also used
as transport vessels,

the English race-built galleons
were purebred combat ships.

They were leaner
and even more streamlined.

Their bow was more tapered

and the whole ship was angled
into the water

to cut through the waves.

The term race
is an interesting one

because it's serendipitous
that it suggests speed

but it really means cut down
or raze to the ground,

that use of the word.

So, it meant it was cut down
from these very heavy poop decks

and forecastles
that had existed before.

On previous combat ships
like the carracks,

these tall poop decks
and forecastles

served a very specific purpose.

The tactics used by these ships
were relatively simple.

You fired the heavy guns maybe once,

you then
got alongside the enemy ship,

launched your infantry on board

and captured it sword in hand.

Basically, land fighting on ships.

Traditionally,

being able to attack or defend
from higher platforms

was a huge advantage.

With only a small army,

this type of battle
didn't favour the English.

Instead, they wanted
well-trained gun crews

to fight enemy ships
at a distance

with effective cannon fire.

By taking the control of the guns
away from the soldiers

and giving it to the sailors

they could develop a ship

which could use its heavy guns
as its primary armament.

Sitting lower in the water

and thus less top-heavy,

the race-built design
was a stable platform

for heavy guns
along the whole length of the ship,

including the bow and sternchasers.

In 1577,

Hawkins was made
,treasurer of the English navy

giving him more power
to build up the fleet.

In the same year,

Francis Drake proposed a daring plan
to Queen Elizabeth.

He wanted to sail to the Pacific.

It's dressed up as a voyage of
exploration,

a voyage to find new places,

but it really is an attempt
to go out and plunder the Spanish.

Having raided the Spanish Main,

he now wanted to rob
Spain's less defended

Pacific territories.

Queen Elizabeth was only too happy
to support a voyage

that would demonstrate
England's naval power.

But getting to the Pacific,
much less back,

was no easy feat.

When Drake's mission
left Plymouth Harbour,

it had a small fleet of five ships

and across those five ships
was spread roughly 160 men

and the flagship
was a ship called the Pelican,

which later became known
as the Golden Hind.

A replica of the Golden Hind

sits in the heart of London.

It was launched in 1973

and today
is being painstakingly restored

and made seaworthy once again.

This ship was an early
race-built galleon

incorporating some of the new design principles.

At 150 tons,

the Golden Hind
was not a big vessel.

In such a small ship
with only wind to power it,

Drake and his crew
were about to undertake

the most daring raids in history!

They set sail from Plymouth
on December 13th 1577

and headed into the Atlantic.

Drake's crews now faced weeks
without sight of land

with only crude tools to navigate.

So, this is called the chip log

and it's how we would have measured
speed in the 16th century.

So, it's quite a simple device, really.

You take this triangular
piece of wood

and you throw it over
the side of the ship into the sea.

Because of the way it's tied,

it's got a uniform drag,

which means
as the ship leaves it behind

this rope starts to unravel

and you turn over a sand timer
that measures 30 seconds...

And in that 30 seconds,

you're gonna be counting

how many of these knots
pass through your hand.

The idea is you know
how far apart the knots are spaced

so you can do distance
divided by time

and that gives you your speed.

And this is where
we get the idea of knots,

which we still measure
nautical speed in today.

These long voyages were perilous.

Disease was often more dangerous
than combat.

They did their utmost
to keep these ships clean.

Diseases like dysentery
could spread like wildfire

if sailors weren't careful.

The loss of men from illness

forced Drake to scuttle
two of the smaller ships,

reducing his fleet to three.

After 63 days,

Drake finally reached South America.

The remaining ships made their way
down the Patagonia coast

and into the Strait of Magellan.

In September of 1578,

Drake became
the first English captain

to reach the Pacific.

Instantly, his ships
were hit by a fierce storm.

Francis Fletcher,
chaplain to the expedition,

wrote...

"God by contrary wind
and intolerable tempest

seemed to set himself against us,

forcing us to alter our course
and determination."

The storm lasted two months.

One ship sank

and another raced back
into the Strait of Magellan

to escape to England.

So, eventually,

Drake and his ship, the Pelican,
which he renames the Golden Hind,

is the only ship left.

It's really once Drake is on his own
with just the Golden Hind

that the real treasure-taking
and plundering really kicks off.

Drake was about to
unleash his new combat ship

on the unsuspecting Spanish...

In late 1578,

the English privateer Francis Drake

sailed up the Pacific coast
of South America.

After a year at sea,
he was ready to plunder.

This was Spanish territory
but it was virtually unguarded.

The reason
Spain's possessions in the Americas

were so undefended

is because they didn't think
other Europeans would even risk it.

It was such a perilous voyage
to get round into the Pacific.

Drake could pillage
to his heart's content.

He raided ports all along the coast
of modern-day Chile and Peru.

He starts with a small
Spanish town called Valparaiso.

In December 1578,

he enters the port

and the Spanish
don't really know what's going on,

they think
it must be a Spanish ship.

They're not expecting
Drake to arrive,

so they actually send out
a drum boat

to drum the Golden Hind a salute.

The English
kind of can't believe their luck

and the Spanish town surrenders.

They give up

and the English help themselves
to gold and silver.

At the next port of El Callao,

Drake hears of a Spanish galleon
laden with treasure.

The Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion.

She had only left the port
two weeks earlier.

The Nuestra Senora
was a traditional galleon,

only this one's main purpose

was the transportation
of precious cargo.

They're effectively unarmed

because they're not expecting
this kind of challenge

from other Europeans in the Pacific.

By March 1st 1579,

the faster race-built Golden Hind
had caught up.

Drake drew up his plan of attack.

It was based on deception.

Drake's tactics
for capturing the Nuestra Senora

are classic piracy.

Basically,
you take the victim by surprise

and he did this

by putting barrels
behind the Golden Hind

and slowing her down

so it appeared
she was under sail

but going slowly,

therefore was a heavily laden
local cargo ship.

Drake's plan worked.

The Spanish ship slowed

and the Golden Hind
pulled alongside.

The Spanish captain,
San Juan de Anton,

later testified...

"As they boarded the ship,

the shot two charges
of heavy artillery,

one of which
carried off the mizzen mast."

This is important

because when you're taking
a treasure ship as a privateer

you don't want to sink it

because then the treasure and ship

go all the way
to the bottom of the ocean.

Instead,
you want to knock out the masts

and the sails
and stop it from moving.

From up high on the fighting tops,

Drake's men unleashed
another weapon from their arsenal.

The musket.

Most sailing ships of that period

would be having a store of muskets
on-board.

And the point of the musket

is to be used to try and clear
the decks of your opponents

as ships got closer together.

It's not designed to be
an accurate sniping rifle

type of weapon.

The reason being,

it's firing a lead round shot.

There will be heavy spots
within this round ball.

It's also not a perfect sphere.

If we were to roll this
across the floor,

it would go
in all kinds of directions

and it does exactly that
when you fire the musket.

It doesn't fly in a straight line.

You have to put
blocks of men together

all firing at the same time

and then when you have
ten, 15, 20 shots

going in one direction

you've got a chance of hitting
what you're trying to shoot at.

Fired down
onto the Spanish deck,

the onslaught
had its desired effect.

As Captain de Anton would testify...

"They discharged many muskets

and entered the ship.

As we did not carry
artillery or arms,

we could not make any resistance."

Drake and his men boarded
and emptied the holds.

One of his crew, Francis Pretty,
wrote...

"We found in her great riches

as jewels and precious stones...

Thirteen chests full of plate,

fourscore pound weight of gold
and six and twenty ton of silver!"

With his hold now full of treasure,

Drake set sail for home.

He then sails
across the Pacific Ocean

to the Spice Islands,

loads up on spices

and then travels the 9,700 miles

non-stop
all the way to Sierra Leone

before doing the final leg
of his journey back to England.

The Golden Hind
landed in Plymouth

on September 26th 1580

with 59 surviving crew.

They had been at sea
for 1,020 days!

It was only the second time a ship
had circumnavigated the globe.

It's easy at some levels

to dismiss
the circumnavigation

as just a plunder raid

but I think it's important
that we don't forget

how exceptional this was.

And this is one of
the great achievements

of maritime history!

And to see the size of the ship,

this little ship
sailing all the way round the world,

this demonstrates the achievement
of Francis Drake,

one of the greatest
English seamen of all-time.

The treasure he returned with

is estimated to have been worth
$74 million in today's money.

The majority
went to his delighted investor,

Queen Elizabeth.

In piracy, he made one of
the greatest successes ever

in sailing around the world

and making a profit of 4700%
on the initial investment,

which the queen was an investor,

so he got a knighthood!

Having taken
his revenge on the Spanish,

Sir Francis Drake,
the ex-slaver and pirate,

settled down.

He went into politics,

becoming Mayor of Plymouth
and a member of parliament.

But Drake's days
of fighting the Spanish

were not over...

In the late 1580s,

the tensions between Catholic Spain
and Protestant England

began to boil over.

In 1587,

Queen Elizabeth decided to support
Dutch Protestant rebels

in the Spanish-held Netherlands.

King Phillip had had enough.

He ordered the formation
of an invasion armada.

King Philip II of Spain
has the greatest army in the world

at this point in time

and from his perspective

he has the ability
to come in here

and deal with
the English problem

if he can get the troops
on the ground.

The armada
would carry them there.

England knew its small army
was no match for the Spanish.

There was an increasing likelihood
of an invasion from the continent.

And the only
effective defence against that

would be a powerful navy.

For the past 27 years,

John Hawkins
had been building just that.

Now, the new navy royal
assembled in Plymouth Harbour.

We're just
coming out of Plymouth Harbour here,

going into the Sound.

So,
this is the area of the Catwater

where the English ships
would have been anchored

just in July 1588.

They totalled nearly 200.

Over 100 smaller vessels

supported a core fighting force
of 34 combat ships,

including 13
modern race-built galleons.

Commanding the fleet
was Lord Howard of Effingham.

Alongside him,
John Hawkins and Francis Drake,

no longer mere privateers

but admirals of the queen's
navy royal.

They were ready for the Spanish.

The English have a strong fleet,

these are experienced captains,

experienced sailors

who've been fighting the Spanish
for a long time.

They've every confidence
in their abilities.

Drake took command
of the royal race-built galleon

Revenge.

She is heavily armed...

Twenty large guns,
20 smaller ones

and it's probably one of the best
gun-armed fighting ships

in the world at the time.

On July 19th 1588,

the Spanish Armada was sighted
off Cornwall

in the southwest of England.

The English
have a system of beacons set up.

So, they've coast watchers
who spot the Armada

and light the beacons

and then they're lit
all along the coast

and news comes to Plymouth
that the Armada has been sighted.

The 130 Spanish vessels
sailing in close formation

were a terrifying sight.

Forty were warships,

led by 22 galleons

carrying up to 40 guns.

The rest were carracks,

with their tall fighting decks

and Mediterranean-style
oared combat ships

called Galleass.

But most of the vessels
were used for transport,

carrying supplies,
weapons and troops

for the invasion.

The Armada has roughly 30,000 men
on-board

but 22,000 or so of those
are soldiers designed for fighting

for when the army lands in England

and about 8,000 sailors.

The Spanish plan

was to assemble
an overwhelming invasion force.

The job of the Spanish fleet
was to sail up the English Channel

to reach the coast of Belgium
and link up with an army.

This veteran Spanish force
led by the Duke of Parma

had another 16,000 men.

The Armada was to collect them,
cross the Channel

and march on London.

Lord Howard's plan
is to stop at all costs

the Spanish
choosing an invasion site

on the southern coast of England.

His ships
sailed out and gave chase.

Led by Drake's Revenge,

they quickly caught up
with the Spanish vessels.

But most of the ships
are big and slow merchant ships

and the Spanish fleet,

it's as fast
as their slowest moving ship.

Spain's unarmed transport ships

took cover
in a crescent formation.

No one's quite sure
of the tactics

of how to beat
this huge invasion fleet.

The Spanish form into
a huge crescent

that's seven miles from tip to tip

and it's got two horns
on either end

with its most powerful ships.

On July 21st,

the English fleet engaged the Armada
off Plymouth.

Admirals Howard, Drake and Hawkins

adopted a tactic
of constant harassment.

Most of the serious fighting
on the English side

is done by the navy royal,

the large race-built galleons

with high-quality
brass cannon on-board,

skilled mariners in charge
and good crew.

Fifteen, 20, 25 ships
do most of the work.

The advantage that England have
in their race-built galleons

is that they can fight
and attack ships from a distance.

The great advantage
that the Spanish have

is that if an English ship
gets too close to them

their sheer size
and the number of men on board

means they could overwhelm
an English ship.

So, they want to fight
in two completely different ways.

The Spanish close up,
the English at a distance.

A fact not lost on Lord Howard.

He wrote a letter
to the queen's secretary

before the battle.

"We dare not adventure amongst them,

their fleet being so strong,

but there shall nothing
be either neglected or unhazarded

that may work to overthrow them."

Drake and the other captains
harassed the Spanish

using a number of manoeuvres.

Historian and veteran sailor
Brian Lavery

has researched these tactics
in detail

but has never seen them in action.

Today,
on a ship with comparable sails,

he hopes
to recreate these manoeuvres.

We are now on-board
the training ship Royalist,

which is run by the Sea Cadets.

It's a square-rigger,

that that's why
we're interested in it,

because essentially
it's got the same kind of sails

and rigging ships
the Spanish Armada time had.

Their huge speed advantage

allowed the English
to use hit-and-run tactics

against the Spanish galleons.

Unfortunately, we don't have
a Spanish galleon to attack

at the moment

but we are going to practise
on a red buoy

which is just over there.

Approaching from downwind,

the English closed in
on the Spanish ships.

We're quite close to the buoy now

and roundabout this point
we'll fire the bow guns forward.

Still faster than the enemy,

the English ships then pulled
alongside the Spanish ships

to unleash a broadside of cannons.

This is the most vulnerable moment
for the English.

After that, a quick escape!

Don't get tangled up
with the Spanish ships!

Don't get caught
in their grappling hooks!

If they can catch you,
they can board you.

That's the end of it for you.

As the attacker pulled away,

the next English ship
was lining up to do the same.

With their speed,

Revenge and the race-built galleons

could fall back, reload, catch up
and repeat these attacks.

The Spanish don't have the ships
that can engage with the English

in high-speed operations.

The English ships
simply choose the range

at which they wish to fight.

The Spanish have to take
whatever the English throw at them

and because
they hold their stations

none of the Spanish ships
break out of formation

to seek battle.

It's all about getting the fleet
to rendezvous with the army.

Speed and manoeuvrability
were only part of the equation.

The superior English cannons
also came into play.

They're using slightly different
gun technology to the Spanish.

Namely, they've got
four wheeled truck carriages

on their cannons,

which makes them much easier
to manoeuvre about their decks.

This simple development,

four-wheel instead of two-wheel
gun carriages,

made all the difference.

What the English are able to do
with their cannon is...

After it's fired,

it comes back in-board
on the carriage

and then
they're able to clean the gun out

and re-load it from the front

and then roll it back out
to fire it again,

whereas the Spanish cannon,

once they're loaded,
they're tied in place

and you can only fire them
once in an action.

It's not possible
to easily reload it.

These one-sided attacks
gave the English early advantage.

But while damage was done,

the Spanish lost only two ships.

The battle was not yet won...

The Spanish King Phillip II

had sent a huge armada
to depose his rival

Queen Elizabeth of England.

On July 27th 1588,

they reached Calais.

Over a hundred Spanish ships

now sat only 20 miles
from the English coast.

They were preparing to transport
36,000 troops across the Channel.

The Spanish anchor at Calais

while they wait for Parma
to get his men ready,

to get onto the troop barges,

to sail across to England.

If they could get
their two armies across the Channel

England would fall.

To prevent this,

the English fleet
would have to strike now.

In the early hours of July 29th,

they took action.

When the Spanish fleet
has anchored in Calais,

for protection the ships
are all quite close together.

Drake and Hawkins and Howard,

they decide to use fireships
to attack the Spanish.

A fireship is a not very valuable
smallish vessel on your side

that you fill
with combustible materials

and explosives

and you sail it downwind
into the enemy anchorage

where it creates huge confusion.

Eight burning ships

were steered toward
the anchored Spanish fleet.

At night in Calais,

all of a sudden
it must have been terrifying

to see these ships on fire
coming towards you!

One Spanish sailor later recalled...

"At midnight,

the enemy set adrift,

with their sails set
and the tide in their favour,

eight ships which came towards us
all in flames

burning furiously in the bows."

And this causes absolute chaos
among the Spanish fleet!

The Spanish
had to evade the fireships.

Hauling the anchors
would take too long.

There was no choice...

They had to cut their anchor ropes.

Everybody heads off
looking to save his ship

and they head off
in different directions.

The Spanish fleet
now does not exist.

It's just a collection of ships
spread across the sea,

each one of which
is now vulnerable to being attacked.

Drake and the other
race-built galleons

pounced just off the coast of Gravelines.

This is the point

where the English
sail into closer quarters

and start to really do damage
to the Spanish ships.

This is the decisive phase
of the battle.

The English, for the first time,
can really bring their guns to bear

and use those manoeuvres of
sailing in close to Spanish ships,

firing with their bows,
turning to fire broadside,

turning to fire
from their stern guns

and taking it in turns
to pummel the Spanish ships.

This is how they wanted to fight
from the beginning.

Back on the Royalist,

the complexity of these manoeuvres
becomes clear.

This time,
we're going to fire all the guns.

We're going to fire the guns
on four different sides.

We're going to fire
everything we've got this time.

We have to do a 360-degree turn
to do that,

which is
quite a difficult thing to do

in a sailing ship.

It takes a good deal
of seamanship skill to do that.

This time, a moving dingy
stands in as a Spanish ship.

First of all,
we're going to fire the bow guns.

The English ship

then pulled alongside
the Spanish vessel,

ready to unleash a broadside.

Now we'll fire the guns
one by one

as we come alongside him.

The English
then turned into the wind

to fall behind the Spanish.

Now we're going to turn to port.

We're going to turn over that way.

Then we'll get into position
to fire the guns on the other side.

These manoeuvres
were being executed

in a hectic battle
with ships everywhere.

These battles are fought
at frighteningly close quarters.

You can have conversations
with the enemy ship,

we're talking about that close!

So, the Spanish shout at the English
they they're chicken

because
they're not getting close enough!

You can taunt and shout
at your opponents!

From the English point of view,

don't get too close or you will
immediately lose your advantage!

After firing the bow,
port and starboard guns,

there was one set of cannons
still to fire.

The only thing we have left now
is the stern guns

and that involves
getting the wind behind us.

As the Spanish galleon pulled away,

the English ships caught the wind
and looped around into position.

Now he' dead astern of us.

We can fire the guns over there

and that will be our last shot
for now.

We're going to withdraw now
and reload the guns

and decide
whether to come back again!

Using these tactics,
Drake and Hawkins wreaked havoc.

The Spanish sailor recalled...

"The enemy then opened
a heavy artillery fire

on our flagship
at 7:00 in the morning

which continued for nine hours!

So tremendous was the fire

that over 200 balls struck the sails
and hull of the flagship

on the starboard side,

killing and wounding many men,

disabling and dismounting
three guns

and destroying much rigging."

The Battle of Gravelines
is a pivotal moment

in the Armada Campaign.

From this moment on,

the Armada is doomed.

There is no chance of ever landing
a force in England.

The Armada had failed.

Only six ships
were lost to direct combat action

but the fleet was dispersed,

driven from Calais
and unable to recover its mission.

Sir Francis Drake
wrote to Queen Elizabeth

about their victory.

"Certain it is that many
of their people were sick

and not a few killed.

Their ships, sails, ropes and masts
needeth great reparations

for that they had all felt
your majesty's force."

What they did do,

they kept the Spanish Armada
under constant pressure.

There never was a moment
when they could relax.

They couldn't regroup,
they couldn't reorganise.

There was no chance of them
attempting any landings

along the English coast.

The English had the right ships

commanded by experienced leaders
who had the ideal tactics.

These tactics,

although they've been used
in privateering battles

and things like that,

for a big naval battle
this was completely unprecedented.

Now you're talking about
naval battles being fought

from further away,

matching firepower
across two opposing ships.

On July 30th 1588,

the surviving Spanish ships
try to escape home

by sailing around
the north of Scotland

but many perished in strong winds
on the Irish coast.

With no anchors,
they could not take shelter.

So, the weather completes
what is an English tactical victory

and turns it into
a strategic success.

So, a lot of Spanish ships
don't back.

It's a shattering blow

to the prestige
of the Spanish empire.

Of the 130 ships that set sail,

only 67 returned.

Twenty thousand Spanish
soldiers and sailors died.

For the English,

the victory
would define their future.

The Armada is the foundation myth
of English identity.

It's an event which defines

the way they will see the world
for all-time.

That myth feeds the generations

that the heroes of the armada,
like Drake and Hawkins,

become figures to live up to

and that England sees its future
as taking on the world,

taking on bigger powers
by using the spirit of the armada.

After their great victory,

Francis Drake and John Hawkins
continue to battle the Spanish.

Hawkins joined Drake on a raid
in 1595

but died
off the coast of Puerto Rico.

His cousin, Drake,
would succumb to dysentery

only two months later.

Drake was buried at sea
off the coast of Panama,

leaving behind a controversial
but incredible legacy.

For all his misgivings
in terms of his effective piracy,

in terms of his ruthless ambition

and the extent to which he was
a wayfarer for English imperialism,

it's hard not to admire
Drake's seamanship

and remark upon the fact

that he really was
a fantastic mariner.

The success
of the race-built galleons

inspired the next generation
of combat ship[s

such as the frigates
of the 17th century,

even faster,
more powerful vessels.

But for that crucial moment
in history

when England's fate was at stake

they were the ultimate combat ship!

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