Re: Three Space What-ifs, a common theme



gn@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
I may have misunderstood your implication here, but isn't it the case
that by objective measures the *Spanish* had the vastly superior naval
power at the time of the Armada? However, the English perhaps had
superior training, fortitude, leadership, and luck.

In numbers, and total guns, yes - the Spanish were way ahead, but what the English were taking on was something more like an invasion convoy than a invasion fleet.
The big, well armed Spanish ships had to stay with the slow and badly-armed vessels carrying troops and provisions to prevent the English vessels from attacking them.
This really hampered them tactically, and the generally smaller size of the English ships actually worked in their favor by giving them better maneuverability than their heavily armed opponents.
One really big advantage the English ships was that their captains had been doing privateering actions against the Spanish for years in one-on-one encounters as the treasure galleons crossed from the New World back to Spain; they knew how to take advantage of any situation that arose to better their tactical position, whereas the Spanish fleet had to work like a huge mass under a central command.
Just like in Nelson's time, individual incentive when unexpected opportunity arose was applauded and rewarded, not discouraged and possibly punished.
That fact made English captains and crews on average the best sailors in the world at the time*.
I am still awed by Francis Drake's unique method of evading any Spanish ships trying to intercept The Golden Hind on her way back to England after raiding the Caribbean and both coasts of central and South America by...taking the long way home... across the Pacific, around Africa and up to England via a multi-year voyage - in short, circumnavigating the planet like Magellan.
Dear God; what balls, confidence, and skill.
This is the caliber of what you are going to be taking on? You might has well sign your will before you even raise anchor.
It's no wonder that one Spanish captain of a ship of twice his vessel's size and armament that he had defeated was delighted to find that he was its captain, as "It is no dishonor to surrender to the greatest seaman of our age."
The whole Armada fiasco had a lot of causes; rotting ships and food, terrible weather, being under the command of someone whose main skill was running orange orchards after the planned leader of it died unexpectedly, terrible strategy (blockade the English ships in their harbors or destroy them on the high seas with your best ships; then send over the main force of the Armada with all the troops in their slow and unwieldy ships pretty much unopposed after the English naval threat to them had been severely reduced).

* And possibly any time... in many cases, you were going up against a bunch of extremely skilled legal pirates who were out to make a buck, not conscripts. Imagine what a fleet of veteran pirate cutthroats could do with central command authority, better armed ships, less rum, more medications against syphilis, and royal protection?
A whole fleet of Henry Morgans and Blackbeards coming up on you.
Savvy? ;-)

Capt. Jack Sparrow
Port Royal, Jamaica.
.

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