The Spanish ships’ heavy guns. They sustained serious damage and casualties without being able to reply effectively. Three Spanish ships were…

Evidence

Spanish Armada | Definition, Defeat, & Facts (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

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; Long-range naval cannon were far less deadly than contemporaries believed — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 709; The Spanish castle at Saint Domingo commanded the harbour with fifty cannon. — Mary Frear Keeler, Sir Francis Drake’s West Indian Voyage,…, 2967 (+6 more)

Related

• Ships lost their anchors, and drifted out to sea to avoid catching fire, causing the Spanish ships’ formation to be completely broken. (similarity 0.87)
• 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 0.86)
• No Spanish ship was lost other than the eight fire ships; the fireships’ main effect was forcing the Spanish to scatter. (similarity 0.86)
• 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 0.84)
• The shore guns nor the galleys, nor the fireships did the slightest harm. (similarity 0.83)
• Drake’s raid on Cádiz in April 1587 destroyed roughly 30 ships and large quantities of supplies, setting Spanish Armada preparations back by a year. (similarity 0.83)
• English gunfire had crippled no Spanish ship through deliberate action (similarity 0.83)
• The Spanish castle at Saint Domingo commanded the harbour with fifty cannon. (similarity 0.83)
• Drake quickly formed his four great galleons, each English ship firing a full broadside as she passed. (similarity 0.83)
• Drake exposed Spanish strategic weaknesses and held the initiative for years (similarity 0.82)
• The fireships did almost no physical damage; not one Spanish ship actually caught fire, but the Spanish did not know they were ordinary. (similarity 0.82)
• 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 0.82)
• The fireships caused great confusion, forcing the Spanish ships to cut their cables in order to save themselves. (similarity 0.81)
• 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. (similarity 0.81)
• Long-range naval cannon were far less deadly than contemporaries believed (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Drake exposed Spanish strategic weaknesses and held the initiative for years #expands (0.60) — John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake, 1330