Gravelines trapped the Armada between shoals and gunfire

The fireships did not burn Spanish vessels, but they destroyed the protective formation and left most ships without anchors. A southwesterly wind pushed the fleet leeward, away from Calais and toward hazardous coastal waters whose sea marks the Dutch had removed. Spanish ships had already expended much of their powder and carried invasion supplies that obstructed access to their guns. Their doctrine relied on a slow initial discharge followed by closing to board, a tactical sequence the faster-firing English deliberately refused to offer.