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Spanish and English ships of the Spanish Armada campaign 1588

An interpretation of secondary sources

The best starting point for information about ships of the Spanish Armada campaign is provided by the leading modern source, Martin and Parker, which contains a full order of battle for the Spanish and English fleets including ship names, tonnage and armament (pp 62-65) as well as further text and illustrations. Comprehensive tabulated orders of battle are also given in Thomas together with notes about the fates of individual ships (pp 187-204).

Konstam's The Armada Campaign 1588 also has good lists including attributed ship types and division of the English into appropriate fleets and squadrons.

Identification of what all the ships were actually like is a little problematic, partly because (a) historical terminology was not consistent, (b) modern terminology is not consistent, and (c) the notion of 'types' is to some extent an imposition of idealised concepts on a gradual evolutionary process.

Contemporary illustrations could also be fanciful, but some at least are commended by modern writers for their technical logic which suggests careful observation by their artists and authenticity in depiction.

The Spanish fleet

The Spanish fleet was divided into squadrons. Martin and Parker stress that these were not tactical units (p 29), but they remain convenient working categories for identifying the ships by origin and type.

The Squadron of Portugal contained 9 Portuguese and 1 Tuscan (Florentine) galleon. Most of these galleons were heavily armed two-deckers (Martin and Parker, p 36). Judging from the tonnage, there were probably 7 two-deckers and 3 smaller ships.

The Squadron of Castille contained 10 Spanish galleons of the trans-Atlantic silver fleet guard. 8 of these, built in the 1580s, were low-hulled and weatherly, and had a single gun deck placed well above the waterline (Martin and Parker, p 37). The other 4 ships were large armed merchantmen from the Spanish Main. Konstam's The Armada Campaign 1588 gives 11 galleons and 3 naos respectively.

The Squadrons of Biscay and Guipúzcoa numbered between them 19 Atlantic merchantmen (Martin and Parker, pp 38-39). One of these is identified as an urca in the OOB. A twentieth vessel had become separated and did not rejoin the fleet. Martin and Parker describe these as "stout, ocean-going workhorses" (p 39).

The Squadron of Andalusia had 11 ships including one identified as an urca (the Duquesa Santa Anna) in Martin and Parker. It also contained a galleon (the San Juan Bautista).

The Levant Squadron had 10 big merchant vessels commandeered mainly from Mediterranean ports. They had mostly been grain carriers (Martin and Parker, p 40). La Rata Santa Maria Encoronada is identified as a carrack (Martin and Parker, p 241). Walker numbers all these 44 merchantmen as carracks (p 83).

The Squadron of Hulks consisted of 23 hulks/urcas from the Netherlands and the Baltic. The hulk (or urca) was a descendent of the cog, but it is also a generic term for any large merchantmen (Guilmartin, p 168). The flagship of the hulks, El Gran Grifón, is described as bluff in the bow and broad in the beam and typical of its type (Martin and Parker, pp 42-43), but whilst this ship had received additional armament the rest of the hulks were more lightly armed.

The squadron of pataches and zabras consisted mostly of small vessels used for communication, but there were three larger ships including one embargoed English and one Scottisn merchantmen. Martin and Parker refer to the small boats as pinnaces and caravels - most of them lateen-rigged and able to use auxiliary oar-power when required (p44). These boats were roughly equivalent to what the English would have called pinnaces (Thomas p 37).

A few other pataches and zabras were numbered in the other squadrons already mentioned.

There were also 4 Neapolitan galleases, and 4 galleys which were Portuguese or, at least, sailed from Lisbon. Forced to run for harbour in the Bay of Biscay, they never reached the English coast.

English ships

In 1588 the English fleet had 34 ships - 6 from Henry's time, 11 built since 1584, 12 rebuilt to the same standards as the newer ones and 5 others (Martin and Parker p 51). Thomas provides dates for when the Queen's ships were built or modernised (p 188). The largest English galleons were actually larger than the largest Spanish galleons, but had lower fore and aft castles making them faster and more manoeuverable. English race-built galleons (see below) were narrower in the beam than Spanish ships, but it seems uncertain whether English ships in general were narrower.

From carrack to galleon

The term 'carrack' had a specific meaning in northern Europe but not elsewhere (Guilmartin, p 91). In southern Europe a ship of this type and period was known as a nao (Guilmartin, p 96). (Nao is the Spanish: the Portuguese is nau). The English were more inclined to apply the term 'galleon' to foreign ships than to their own (Guilmartin, p 158). Historical use of such terms was often quite indiscriminate and could just convey the idea of a large ship.

Modern writers tend to imbue terms like 'carrack' and 'galleon' with specific characteristics, but this can also be misleading. Such idealised concepts and definitions are just snapshots in an evolutionary process, but they have the effect of relegating all those forms that fall outside and between such snapshots to 'intermediate' or 'indeterminate' status as if they were imperfect prototypes of later models, and this leads to logical absurdities such as "the first true real galleon" (Cowburn, p 60) or "the fully developed galleon" (Guilmartin, p 158) as if such things pre-existed as a Platonic ideal waiting to be discovered!

'Carrack' and 'galleon' are essentially terms that we apply to ships of the 15th and 16th Centuries which allow us to differentiate a combination of characteristics which changed over time and subsequently evolved into the Napoleonic ship-of-the-line.

A famous, if rather small, example of a carrack/nao is provided by Columbus' Santa Maria. A similar ship c. 1500 is depicted in Guilmartin (p 96). This contrasts with the larger and higher-castled Portuguese carrack, Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai, a warship of about 1520, which is depicted in a painting attributed to Joachim Patinir (Guilmartin, pp 90-91) and redrawn (p 97).

The transition from the early carrack to the English race-built galleon - the latest thing at the time of the Armada - was characterised by the following developments:

(1) Adoption of a flat stern with gunports.
(2) Piercing of the hull for broadside gunports.
(3) Increase in length to breadth ratio.
(4) Setting-back and reduction in height of forecastle, and appearance of prominent projecting beakhead.
(5) Pronounced tumble-home and a characteristic crescent shape when viewed from the side (Guilmartin, p 158).
(6) Further reduction in height of superstructures (race-built).
(7) Increasingly heavier armament.

The detailed, coloured illustrations in Howarth and Wheatley strongly support the 'evolutionary' nature of development.

Flat stern with gunports

The flat stern was adopted to house gunports firing 'in chase'. It goes back to the great ships of Henry VIII's time which are depicted in the famous painting, The Embarkation of Henry VIII for the Field of the Cloth of Gold 1520 (c 1545), although they were not actually present on this occasion. An engraving of the painting (clearer than the original) can be seen in Rodger opp. p. 133.

Broadside gun ports

Henry VIII's Mary Rose (1509) is traditionally held to be the first ship with broadside gunports. (Cowburn, p 53). She was extensively rebuilt and re-equipped in 1536 and famously pictured on the Anthony Anthony Roll of Henry VIII's navy (1545). She was lost in 1545 and recovered in the 70s. The height of her forecastle had been considerably reduced by the time of her sinking (Guilmartin, p 95). She is shown in Martin and Parker at p 114. The adoption of broadside gunports established the first major difference between the appearances of warships and merchantmen (Cowburn, p 53). Carvel-built ships (with flush fitting planks) predominated over clinker-built ships (with overlapping planks) precisely because it was easier to cut holes in them (Cowburn, p 55).

Length-to-breadth ratio

Guilmartin describes the carrack as having a length-to-breadth ratio of 3:1 as opposed to the galleon's 4:1 (p 158). Its narrower, longer form and its low beak head resembled a galley from which the word galleon is derived. The crescent shape - seemingly more exaggerated on Spanish ships - is well illustrated in a 1587 plan of an Atlantic galleon shown in Martin and Parker (p 36). The Squadron of Castille was equipped with ships of this type.

Race-built

Lower superstructures and increased gunnery are particularly associated with the development of the so-called English 'race-built' galleon, the model for which was provided by The Revenge (1577). In 1578 John Hawkins became treasurer of the navy and ensured that all the Queen's new warships were of this type featuring fine hulls, reduced superstructures and heavier armament (Martin and Parker, p 52). Race-built (or 'raze-built') was apparently derived from the 'razing' of the superstructure (cf Napoleonic razees), and older ships were also rebuilt to the new design.

Konstam in The Armada Campaign 1588 points out (p 20) that only four ships (Revenge, Vanguard, Rainbow and Ark Royal) were actually "designed from the keel-up" as race-built galleons. The refurbished Royal ships were cut down to match the race-built ones but would have remained broader in the beam.

Gunnery

In addition to being more manoeuvreable, English race-built ships had a significantly higher gunnery-to-tonnage ratio.

Spain had the best army in Europe during this period, and the greater height of the Spanish ships facilitated the preferred Spanish tactic of grappling and boarding. During preparation for the Armada, however, the Spanish made considerable efforts to increase the armament of their ships.

For a discussion of gunnery, readers are referred to Martin and Parker, but I will here stress the superiority and importance of the English truck carriages over the clumsy field carriages with which the Spanish guns were equipped. The latter were difficult to reload and may have required outboard loading, a risky undertaking at any time and virtually suicidal in the heat of battle. Truck carriages had been in widespread use on English ships since as early as 1545 (Martin and Parker, p 50).

General appearance of Spanish and English galleons

The illustrations in Guilmartin of Spanish and English galleons (pp 159, 161) depict ships very similar in appearance, although the English ship lacks the high forecastle and would have been much more heavily armed and narrower in the beam (if race-built from the keel up). These illustrations are based respectively on a contemporary model in the Museo Naval, Madrid, and on plans from Matthew Baker’s Fragments of Ancient Shipwrightwry.

Another handy comparison is provided by Hendrik Vroom's painting of a sea fight, possibly Cadiz 1596 (Guilmartin pp 180-181). Martin and Parker date the painting to around 1600 and describe the Iberian galleon as Portuguese.

Konstam's Spanish Galleon 1530-1690 contains drawings by Tony Bryan reconstructing the San Estebán (1554) - an early Spanish galleon without the later high sterncastle, the San Mateo (1582) - a Portuguese galleon, and the San Juan Bautista (1588) - an Indies galleon.

General appearance of later merchant carracks/naos

Guilmartin moves on from the large military carrack (the early 16th C great or royal ship) to concentrate on the state-of-the-art galleon, so does not throw much light on the appearance of the later merchant carracks which formed such a large part of the Armada.

Martin and Parker (p 39) reproduces an image of a large 16th century merchant ship from an engraving after Bruegel. It shows a large gun at the waist firing over the bulwark, some medium guns piercing the hull on both the broadside and stern, and swivel guns in high fore and stern castles. This image is contemporary, particularly clear, and a very useful guide to the appearance of merchant carracks of the period.

General appearance of hulks/urcas

Baltic hulks are pictured in Martin and Parker from an engraving after Bruegel (p 44). They are broad and the stern castle is particularly boxlike. They lack the prominent forecastle of the merchant carrack (p 39) already mentioned.

Walker's urca (p 85) is depicted as a very plain-looking ship with two masts bearing single sails and a lateen-rigged stern sail.

Smaller vessels

Martin and Parker have a fairly crude illustration of a pinnace (p 52) but it is difficult to judge scale from this. Walker illustrates a patache (p 84).

Decoration

The illustrations in Walker serve to emphasize that warm water ships had white-coated lower hulls in contrast to the pitch and tar coated lower hulls of northern Europe.

Hulls were unpainted but upperworks were picked out in contrasting colours.

The Matthew Baker plan of an English galleon (reproduced in colour in Martin and Parker p 81 and Walker p 42) shows the superstructure painted in geometric patterns in red, white and green. Red and white were the colours of the English flag, green and white the livery colours of the Tudors.

The Spanish galleases are described by a contemporary account as being predominantly red (Martin and Parker, pp 37-38) but are referred to by the authors more specifically as crimson on p 172.

Spanish flags bore the Cross of Burgundy, a red X on a plain or striped background. Tudor ensigns featured or incorporated the Cross of St George, sometimes also with a multi-striped background. Streamers were in Tudor green and white.

References

Cowburn, Philip. The Warship in History (Macmillan 1965).
Guilmartin, John, Jr. Galleons and Galleys (Cassell 2002).
Howarth, Stephen , and Wheatley, Joseph (Illustrator). Historic Sail: The Glory of the Sailing Ship from the 13th to the 19th Century.
Konstam, Angus. The Armada Campaign 1588. (Osprey 2001).
Konstam, Angus. Spanish Galleon 1530-1690. (Osprey 2004).
Martin, Colin, and Parker, Geoffrey. The Spanish Armada (Guild Publishing 1988).
Rodger, N A M. A Naval History of Britain Vol 1 (Harper Collins 1997).
Thomas, David A. The Illustrated Armada Handbook (Harrap 1988).
Walker, Bryce. The Armada (Time-Life Books 1981).

Other sources encountered

Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. The Spanish Armada (OUP 1988).
Kemp, Peter. The Campaign Of The Spanish Armada (Phaidon 1988).
Mattingly, Garrett. The Defeat of the Spanish Armada (Jonathan Cape 1959).

Internet resources

This review is based on the above printed references, but Internet sources have been useful for background information, perspective and identification of issues.

A document at http://www.kotiposti.net/felipe/Spain/Gran_Armada_de_1588/gran_armada_de_1588.html provides a Spanish OOB including ship types, origins, dates ard fates. It does not exactly accord with Martin and Parker and its provenance is uncertain, but it makes interesting reading.

http://greatgridlock.net/Sqrigg/squrig.html is helpful on the development of the carrack/galleon.

http://website.lineone.net/~dee.ord/Tudors.htm illustrates Tudor sailing ships including a Breughel engraiving dated to 1550 which shows a design intermediate between the concepts of carrack and galleon.

http://www.matthew.co.uk/history/navigation2.html discusses typology and nomenclature in relation to ships and navigation in Atlantic Canada in the 16th Century.

Drawings by David Meagher based on Bruegel's ships are particularly impressive: http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/~ben/meagher.htm

Other resources

Lewis, Prof Michael. Armada Guns (1961).
A key reference for its subject, but not consulted for this article.