The English sent fire ships into the Spanish anchorage at Calais, and prevailing winds and storms ultimately scattered and destroyed the Spanish fleet on its retreat.

Evidence

Winds of Change: Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588 (NASA Landsat Science)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Surviving Cadiz permanently cured English sailors of fearing shore guns, galleys, and fire-ships. — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 243; The Armada achieved a smooth crescent formation that awed experienced English seamen. — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 620; The Armada could not board the faster English ships even with the weather-gauge — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 673 (+17 more)

Related

• No Spanish ships were burnt, but the crescent formation had been broken, and the fleet found itself too far leeward of Calais in the rising southwesterly wind. (similarity 0.90)
• Ships lost their anchors, and drifted out to sea to avoid catching fire, causing the Spanish ships’ formation to be completely broken. (similarity 0.88)
• No Spanish ship was lost other than the eight fire ships; the fireships’ main effect was forcing the Spanish to scatter. (similarity 0.87)
• Though not a single Spanish ship was, in fact, torched by the attack, the fireships caused many to cut their anchor cables in panic to avoid… (similarity 0.86)
• The Armada could not board the faster English ships even with the weather-gauge (similarity 0.85)
• The Spanish would be forced to cut their anchor cables as they tried to avoid being burned, throwing the fleet into confusion and making it far easier for the English to attack. (similarity 0.85)
• The weather of 1588 appears to have been extraordinary; the Spanish were prevented from putting to sea for some weeks by contrary winds. (similarity 0.85)
• The Spanish never regained the weather-gauge for the next nine days. (similarity 0.84)
• The fireships caused great confusion, forcing the Spanish ships to cut their cables in order to save themselves. (similarity 0.84)
• The English captains saw fireships as the only way to dislodge the Armada. (similarity 0.84)
• The next day, the English continued their attacks, despite the Spanish use of heavy onshore guns and fireships sent in to disrupt the English. (similarity 0.84)
• The Armada achieved a smooth crescent formation that awed experienced English seamen. (similarity 0.84)
• On the night of 7 August, English fireships broke the Spanish formation, and Medina Sidonia’s ships ‘scattered in a…’ (similarity 0.83)
• The fireships did almost no physical damage; not one Spanish ship actually caught fire, but the Spanish did not know they were ordinary. (similarity 0.83)
• The shore guns nor the galleys, nor the fireships did the slightest harm. (similarity 0.82)