Race-built galleons and avoiding boarding

John Hawkins and other English planners understood that England could not absorb the manpower losses of Spanish-style grappling and boarding. Spanish practice drew on Mediterranean galley warfare, in which soldiers made a sea fight resemble an extension of combat on land. Lower forecastles and aftercastles reduced topweight and improved manoeuvrability, although the hull and rig still imposed hard limits in wind and sea. Race-built galleons therefore supported an English preference for fighting at range instead of making a faster version of the same boarding platform.