Towards the end of August, the Admiral, Lord Thomas Howard, with six of Her Majesty's ships and as many small vessels, was at anchor at Flores, when news arrived of the near approach of the great Spanish fleet. Many of the Englishmen were ill on shore, and others were filling the ships with ballast. Imperfectly manned and ballasted as they were, there was nothing for it but to make an attempt to escape out of the trap in which they were caught, and the ships slipped their cables. Sir Richard, as Vice-Admiral, was the last to start, delaying to do so till the final moment, in order to collect those of his sick crew who were on shore; and this delay was fatal. The two great Spanish squadrons hove in sight and intercepted him. However, he resolved to force his way through. The Spanish fleet consisted of fifty-three vessels. Eleven out of the twelve English ships had escaped. Sir Richard weighed, uncertain at first what to do. The Spanish fleet were on his weather bow, and he was advised to cut his mainsail, cast about, and run before the wind, trusting to the fleetness of his ship. But Sir Richard utterly refused to turn his back on the enemy, alleging that he would die rather than show that to a Spaniard. The wind was light. The _San Philip_, a huge high-cargoed ship of 1500 tons, hove to windward, took the wind out of the sails of the _Revenge_, and attempted to board her. The Spanish vessels were filled with soldiers: in some two hundred, in some five hundred, in others eight hundred. The _San Philip_ had three tiers of ordnance, with eleven pieces on every tier. Then, as Tennyson tells the tale:-- "Sir Richard spoke and he laughed, and we roared a hurrah, and so The little _Revenge_ ran on sheer into the heart of the foe, With her hundred fighters on deck, and her ninety sick below, For half of their fleet to the right, and half to the left were seen, And the little _Revenge_ ran on thro' the long sea-lane between." The fight began at three o'clock in the afternoon and continued all that evening. The _San Philip_, having received the lower tier of the _Revenge_, charged with cross-bar shot, was to some extent disabled, and shifted her quarters. Repeated attempts made to board the English vessel were repulsed. All that August night the fight continued, the stars shining overhead, but eclipsed by the clouds of smoke from the cannon. Ship after ship came in upon the _Revenge_, so that she was continuously engaged with two mighty galleons, one on each side, and with the enemy boarding her on both. Before morning fifteen men-of-war had been engaged with her, but all in vain; some had been sunk, the rest repulsed. "And the rest, they came aboard us, and they fought us hand to hand, For a dozen times they came with their pikes and musqeteers, And a dozen times we shook 'em off, as a dog that shakes his ears, When he leaps from the water to land."