A bridge could be saved by uncoupling sections to let a fireship pass

Evidence

As the fire-ship bore down Renty ordered the sections of the bridge directly in her path to be uncoupled. They swung back, and the ship swept through and on to burn herself out harmlessly on the edge of the basin of Sluys. She had no gunpowder in her belly. — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 323

Categorization

• XREF: The counter-tactic to fireships — uncoupling bridge sections — becomes the load-bearing nuance when contrasting the Sluys raid with the Cadiz raid.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 323