A minute detail of the number and force of the Spanish fleet is given in Charnock’s History of Marine Architecture. It appears that the vessels classed as galleons mounted from 50 to 20, or even so few as 15 cannon, and the largest of them were from 1000 to 1600 tons burthen. The following summary will convey some notion of the size and equipment of the vessels in use, and show the immense superiority of the Spanish over the English force. No. of Smaller Tonnage. Galleons. Vessels. Guns. Sailors. Soldiers. 7,739 Portuguese} 10 2 389 1,242 3,086 squadron} 5,861 Biscayan 10 4 302 906 2,117 8,054 Castilian 15 2 474 1,793 2,924 8,692 Andalusian 10 1 315 776 2,365 7,192 Guypuiscoan 11 4 296 608 2,120 8,632 Italian 10 0 319 844 2,792 10,860 Medina 0 24 466 930 3,570 2,090 Mendoza[65] 0 25 204 746 1,481 ———— —— —— ————— ————— —————— 59,120 66 62 2,765 7,845 20,455 Slaves Four Neapolitan Galleasses, } mounting 50 guns each } 200 477 744 1,200 Four Portuguese 50 ” ” 200 424 440 888 ————– ————– ————– ————– 400 901 1,184 2,088 2,765 7,845 20,455 ————– ————– —————— 3,165 8,746 21,639 The English force is less minutely given: numerically it was superior to the Spanish, for it consisted of 175 vessels, besides others classed as victuallers; but the inferiority of the several ships in size and force will appear from a comparison of their tonnage and the number of their crews. The largest of the royal navy was of 1100 tons: the collective burthen of the fleet amounted only to 29,744 tons, barely more than half that of the Spanish navy, and their crews consisted of 14,501 men, opposed to a numerical force more than double their number. The number of guns and weight of metal of the English fleet, we have not been able to obtain—in this respect the disproportion was probably even greater. The reader will observe that we have not taken into account the Dutch squadron, which did good service in blocking up in their harbours the forces collected by the Duke of Parma, but never were opposed to the Spanish fleet.