In 1588, the Spanish Armada, consisting of 130 great vessels, with 20,000 land forces on board, set sail against England, while 34,000 more land forces prepared to join from the Netherlands. Amidst the consternation which prevailed in England, active measures were taken to defend the country; thirty vessels prepared to meet the Armada, and another fleet endeavored to block up the Netherlands forces in port. The command was taken by Lord Howard of Effingham. Troops were also mustered on land to repel the invaders. The English fleet attacked the Armada in the Channel, and was found to have a considerable advantage in the lightness and manageableness of the vessels. As the Armada sailed along, it was infested by the English in the rear, and by a series of desultory attacks, so damaged as to be obliged to take refuge on the coast of Zealand. The Duke of Parma now declined to embark the Netherlands forces, and it was resolved by the admiral, that they should return to Spain by sailing round the Orkneys, as the winds were contrary to their passage directly back. Accordingly they proceeded northward, and were followed by the English fleet as far as Flamborough Head, where they were terribly shattered by a storm. Seventeen of the ships, having 5,000 men on board, were cast away on the Western Isles and the coast of Ireland. Of the whole Armada, fifty-three ships only returned to Spain, and these in a wretched condition. The seamen, as well as the soldiers who remained, were so overcome with hardships and fatigue, and so dispirited by their discomfiture, that they filled all Spain with accounts of the desperate valor of the English, and of the tempestuous violence of that ocean by which they were surrounded.