In 1718, Spain, which had recently made some considerable efforts towards the creation of naval power, used her power for an attack on Sicily. Admiral Byng arriving with a superior English fleet, attacked and destroyed the greater part of the Spanish squadron in the Battle of Cape Passaro. No state of war existed. The Spaniards had attacked an English ally, and this was Byng’s only excuse for action. A few months later war was formally declared against Spain, and early in 1719 a curious replica of the Armada took place. Forty Spanish transports, escorted by merely five warships, sailed from Cadiz for the coast of Scotland; the idea being that the 5,000 troops which they carried should co-operate in a Jacobite rising. This “Armada” was dispersed by a severe gale off Cape Finisterre, and only a small fraction of it reached the coast of Ross, where a landing, easily defeated by the military, was made. It is noteworthy that no fleet met the expedition, and it was not till a month after its dispersal in a gale that Norris sailed to look for it. The remainder of this particular war, which lasted only three years, was devoted to the re-conquest of Sicily and the capture of Vigo. Peace was concluded in 1721. In the course of this war the usual combined attack was made upon Gibraltar in 1720; but the arrival of an English fleet easily relieved the garrison. At and about this time the Russian fleet, hitherto allies, became the enemy, and early in 1720 Admiral Norris was despatched to assist the Swedes against them. He appears to have done very little save squabble with the Swedish admiral as to precedence. In any case the Russians did much as they listed against the Swedish coast till Sweden had to sue for peace, and Russia became the predominant Baltic naval power. Her position as such was the more extraordinary in that the Russian fleet was technically very incompetent. The situation was mainly brought about by the personal genius of Peter the Great. His ships were generally the speedier, and he issued the strictest orders that no enemy was to be engaged unless at least one-third inferior in power. In the presence of an enemy the Swedes considered nothing,[26] the English comparatively little. The brain of Peter, was, therefore, an easy match for them, despite the technical inferiority of his _personnel_. This campaign is a most striking illustration of Alexander the Great’s maxim “that an army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.” In 1726, an Anglo-Danish naval demonstration against Russia took place at Kronstadt, but nothing came of the incident, which was repeated equally ineffectually in the following year, when larger preparations were made.