Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 8 August 1588
12:00 AM
Ye Pirate Bold
Dead Men Tell No Tales
Curated by Sonia Larbi
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| Phillipe-Jacques de Loutherbourg, Defeat of the Spanish Armada 8 August 1588, 1796 |
Sir Francis Drake earned his knighthood by circumnavigating the globe - officially. Unofficially, he undertook the journey to wreak havoc on Spanish ports and steal Spanish treasure. During the age of Queen Elizabeth I, Drake was dispatched all over the world to menace the Spanish fleet. Spain possessed a considerable amount of precious metals and trade goods extracted from the Americas. Most of it would travel in slow-moving, cumbersome merchant ships ill-equipped for attack. Britain, struggling financially, needed that income badly. Queen Elizabeth balked at no plan to capture the Catalan treasure.
To the Spanish, Drake was known as "El Draque," the dragon, for his use of fire ships. A fire ship consists of a captured vessel, emptied of anything of value, stuffed full of highly flammable materials, steered towards the advancing attack, and set on fire. Almost completely empty, a fire ship moves faster than any vessel laden with guns, and proved to be a great panic-causing destruction-wielding naval strategy. When Drake learned of the Spaniard's plan to invade the British mainland all the way in the West Indies, he famously set sail for Cadiz, throwing anything overboard that would slow him down, including treasure. It's said a trail of gold and silver lines the ocean floor along the path Drake took to exit the Caribbean.
The Spanish Armada was not expecting an attack from the southwest. As Drake dismantled the smaller vessels at the rear of the formation, Lord Howard Effingham approached the fleet head-on from the north. Suddenly, the Armada was beset by roaring, crackling, fire ships that emerged from the mist and scattered the ranks. That was all the distraction Effingham needed. With the might of the British navy, the two captains succeeded in defeating the invincible Spanish Armada. The battle became known as "The Singeing of the Spanish King's Beard."
Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 8 August 1588 theatrically depicts the famous battle. Occupying three-fourths of the canvas, the Spanish fleet is beset on all sides by Englishmen seeking to board the vessels and sandwiched between the fire ships, clouding the sky black. The flags of Leon, Castile, and the Duke of Medina snap in the wind. To the right, accompanied by the parting of the clouds, sails the true and noble British navy. Flying the Royal Standard and St. George's flag as well as featuring the royal arms of Elizabeth I on the main sail, the British navy fires calmly on the scrambling Spaniards, perfectly in rank, and illuminated by the clear blue sky - a symbol of the blessing from the Protestant God Queen Elizabeth believed in. The scarlet red fire is offset by the brilliant blue of the sky and vivid green of the ocean. Though slightly more saturated than most paintings, the colors succeed in cleanly dividing the canvas between the British and the Spanish.
I fight, 'tis for vengeance! I love to see flow,
At the stroke of my sabre, the life of my foe.
I strike for the memory of long-vanished years;
I only shed blood where another shed tears,
I come, as the lightning comes red from above, O'er the race that I loathe, to the battle I love. The Pirate Song
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