More than 13,500 Armada sailors and soldiers did not come home, the vast majority victims not of English cannon fire but of lack of food and water, virulent disease and incompetent organisation.

Evidence

How the Spanish Armada Was Really Defeated (The History Reader)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Drake’s destruction of seasoned timber caused the Armada’s provisions to rot prematurely — John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake, 876; Even after the delay, many of the Armada’s barrels were made of green, half-seasoned wood, which split, cracked, and leaked. — Sir Francis Drake and the Barrel Staves; Drake’s Cape St Vincent strike doomed the Armada through water loss — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 821 (+1 more)

Related

• By the time the last surviving ships reached Spain in October, half the original Armada was lost and some 15,000 men had perished — a higher toll than the 13,500 figure. (similarity 0.87)
• Even after the delay, many of the Armada’s barrels were made of green, half-seasoned wood, which split, cracked, and leaked. (similarity 0.86)
• Only 60 ships are known to have reached Spain, many of them too badly damaged to be repaired, and perhaps 15,000 men perished. (similarity 0.85)
• Drake’s Cape St Vincent strike doomed the Armada through water loss (similarity 0.83)
• Ships lost their anchors, and drifted out to sea to avoid catching fire, causing the Spanish ships’ formation to be completely broken. (similarity 0.83)
• The Spanish lost 44 ships and estimates suggest that between 10,000 to 20,000 people were killed or went missing. (similarity 0.83)
• A shortage of seasoned wood for barrel staves — caused by Drake’s raiding — meant that supplies of food and water went off. (similarity 0.82)
• Over half the Spanish Armada ships were lost along with fifteen thousand men (similarity 0.81)
• No Spanish ship was lost other than the eight fire ships; the fireships’ main effect was forcing the Spanish to scatter. (similarity 0.81)
• Drake sailed into Cadiz destroying Spanish ships, and a huge stock of barrels was burned that were intended to transport stores, whose loss would affect essential food and water supplies for the… (similarity 0.81)
• It was bad luck, bad tactics and bad weather that defeated the Spanish Armada—not the derring-do displayed by Elizabeth’s intrepid sea dogs. (similarity 0.80)
• The English government neglected sailors after the Armada defeat to save on wages (similarity 0.80)
• New barrels acquired for the fleet’s food-stores were still quite damp from being made, and these damp barrels quickly rotted out the food and water for the entirety of the Spanish fleet. (similarity 0.80)
• Drake reported burning 16-17 hundred hoops and pipe-staves that would have made 25-30 thousand tons of casks, forcing Spain a year later to supply the Armada’s food under that loss. (similarity 0.80)
• Drake’s 1587 raid destroyed thousands of barrel staves essential for storage barrels, which would later affect the Spanish Armada of 1588 due to a shortage of food and drink. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Drake’s Cape St Vincent strike doomed the Armada through water loss #expands (0.60) — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 821