The Battle of Portland Bill – 2 August 1588

After the inconclusive fight off the Eddystone Rocks on July 31st, Lord Howard was intimidated by the Armada’s size and strength. He summoned his remaining ships from Plymouth, bringing his seaborne strength up to 90 vessels (but the reinforcements were mainly supply ships or smaller auxiliaries). Howard erroneously thought he had deterred the Armada’s high admiral (the Duke of Medina Sidonia) from seizing Plymouth Harbor. Howard decided to shadow the Armada and he sent letters to English port authorities asking for a host of small volunteer ships to resist a Spanish boat landing. He also requested that more ammunition be dispatched to his fleet and he was able to partially replenish his stock of cannon balls at sea (a luxury the Spanish did not have). Howard also decided to divide his major combatants into four columns that would stalk the Armada and look for opportunities to cut out individual ships. He would only attack en masse if the Armada seemed poised to seize an English port, otherwise he would wait until he joined the reinforced Channel Guard under Admiral Lord Henry Seymour off Dover. Only then would he fully engage the Armada in a decisive battle off the Picardy coast adjacent to the Duke of Parma’s embarkation port of Dunkirk.

For his part, Medina Sidonia was frustrated that his ships could not come to grips with the faster and more nimble English warships and he was frustrated over losing two major combatants and an admiral to the English due to mishaps (Sir Francis Drake and John Hawkins captured the abandoned ships, respectively). Medina Sidonia had his chance to kill or capture Howard on the morning of August 1st after Howard’s column blundered into the Armada’s formation in the dark. Howard discovered his error at daybreak. His flagship had been following Drake’s ship Revenge but Drake doused his stern lantern before sneaking out of formation to find the abandoned Nuestra Senora del Rosario (Drake received the  surrender of the ship and sent her under escort into Tor Bay as a prize ship).

Medina Sidonia’s Admiral of the four galleasses of Naples (Hugo de Moncado) had asked permission to attack Howard’s column after it entered the Spanish ranks, but Medina Sidonia had thought Howard was engaged in a provocation and did not want to offer battle at that time. Howard was able to return to the English main body several miles to the rear.

Given that Admiral Recalde was seeing to repairs to his flagship San Juan after Drake’s brutal beatdown of July 31st, Medina Sidonia decided to divide the Armada into a small vanguard (led by himself) in the forward (downwind) side and a larger rearguard under Don Alonso Martinez de Leyva on the rear (upwind) side facing the English Fleet.

During the night both fleets were becalmed in Lyme Bay near Portland. Howard was worried that Medina Sidonia might try to seize the port of Weymouth and anchor in the sheltered waters of Portland Roads. The wind freshened out of the northeast around dawn on August 2nd, granting the Spanish the coveted weather gage (upwind position). Howard immediately sent his warships on a series of tacks to regain the wind from the landward side and block the Armada from entering Weymouth Bay. Medina Sidonia concurred with his advisors’ urgings and led his vanguard in a column formation toward the southern tip of Portland (the “Bill”) to cut off Howard.

Meanwhile, Leyva formed his 45-ship rearguard into a column and headed south in a long battle line to deny the English a seaward route to regain the wind. At the last minute, Howard ordered an early reverse tack and headed out to sea and away from Portland Bill and Medina Sidonia’s vanguard. He drew even with Leyva’s ships and engaged in a running sea battle for five hours while trying to regain the weather gage from that quarter. Leyva countered every flanking maneuver and attacked repeatedly downwind, but the nimble English galleons avoided every boarding attempt and fired prodigiously into the Spanish line. English gunners cycled their cannons almost three times faster than the Spanish, but they fired from too far away to cause serious damage. The Spanish ships kept up a steady barrage of light guns from their castles aimed at English rigging, sails, and aloft seamen. This caused the English ships to veer off before their maneuverability was degraded because they had few soldiers and needed the ability to sail to avoid Spanish efforts at clinching.

Around one o’clock the wind died down and both fleets on the seaward quarter lay becalmed several hundred yards away from each other. By this time Howard and Leyva’s forces had drifted westward across the outer reaches of Lyme Bay. Howard looked north and observed that Rear Admiral Martin Frobisher’s column of six ships (his giant greatship Triumph and five heavily armed London merchant auxiliaries) was isolated along the west side of Portland Bill behind a cordon maintained by Medina Sidonia’s vanguard.

When Howard had given the order in the morning for an abrupt tack out to sea, Frobisher had been unable or unwilling to comply because Triumph was less nimble than Howard’s ‘race-built’ galleons. Instead, he had taken his force into the lee of Portland Bill where he felt secure because of a tidal race that had formed between his force and the pursuing ships of the Spanish vanguard. Medina Sidonia assigned Moncado to lead his four galleasses (which could maneuver on both sails and oars) across the tidal race to attack Frobisher’s ships. Unfamiliar with the turbulent waters of the race, Moncado’s ships could not make headway and were swept westward and out of range after exchanging some ineffectual fire with Frobisher’s ships. Afterward, Medina Sidonia anchored his ships outside the race and awaited a slackening tide while the fighting raged out to sea between Howard and Leyva’s ships.

While Howard’s force lay becalmed, he was warned by his chief gunner that their ships were low on ammunition. The English had fired off more cannon balls in a single battle than any force in history up to that time, yet no serious damage had been sustained by either side. Howard began to realize that to be effective they would have to close within musket shot range of Spanish ships and aim for the hulls but that would subject his mariners to devasting anti-personnel counterfire. Howard digested this lesson but his captains were slow to implement tactical reforms.

In the mid-afternoon, the wind freshened from the south, granting Howard the weather gage over the northernmost Spanish forces. He decided to take his 20-ship column north to relieve Frobisher. When Medina Sidonia observed this, he abandoned the cordon of Frobisher, allowing him to escape, and tacked south with his 16 warships to meet Howard in deep water. Meanwhile, Recalde had finished repairs to his mighty San Juan. He unexpectantly tacked out of the midst of the Spanish supply ships and aimed at Howard’s flank as it passed into his lee. Seeing this, Drake broke away from Howard and led 12 ships to surround San Juan and pummel her from all sides. Howard continued forward against Medina Sidonia with his diminished column. To his amazement, 15 Spanish ships behind the Spanish flagship broke away and went to the aid of Recalde, leaving Medina Sidonia aboard his massive galleon San Martin facing Howard’s eight ships alone. Howard’s column bombarded San Martin from medium range for over an hour, sending scores of cannon balls through her superstructure and decimating her rigging, before withdrawing in the face of Spanish reinforcements from Leyva’s rear guard. San Martin suffered modest casualties and sustained some serious leaks that needed patching, but she was still seaworthy. After repairs at sea, she would fight again in future battles (as would Recalde’s San Juan). Drake had abandoned his short but brutal assault against Recalde to join Howard in pummeling San Martin.

The battle off Portland Bill ended after Howard led all his warships safely upwind toward the end of the day (since they were almost out of ammunition) leaving the Armada free to reform its defensive crescent and continue sailing up the English Channel with the wind behind them. Howard’s four columns followed a few miles behind and looked for opportunities to pounce on stragglers.

Howard wrongly thought that his actions that day had prevented the Spaniards from trying to seizing the port of Weymouth, but he was disappointed at how little damage he had inflicted on the Spaniards despite what he called “a terrible value of great shot.”