Most vessels in the English force were privately owned commercial assets, so turning them into fireships meant asking owners to destroy sources of income with no guarantee of tactical success. Drake, Hawkins, and others nevertheless volunteered eight ships of roughly ninety to two hundred tons, left with enough guns and stores to appear especially threatening. Spanish crews, remembering the destructive fireships used at Antwerp, diverted three but cut anchor cables to escape the remaining five. The attack burned no major Spanish warship, yet it shattered the Armada's protected formation and created the opening the English sought.
Chapter · 1:03:51-1:06:54
Shipowners volunteer valuable vessels as fireships
Effingham persuades commanders to sacrifice eight substantial private vessels, whose approach breaks the Armada's anchored formation even without burning Spanish ships.