History of the United Netherlands, 1602-03 | Page 9

species of war-craft, both
by reason of the difficulty of procuring the gang, and because to a true
lover of the ocean and of naval warfare the galley was about as clumsy
and amphibious a production as could be hoped of human perverseness.
High where it should be low. Exposed, flat, and fragile, where elevation

and strength were indispensable--encumbered and top-heavy where it
should be level and compact, weak in the waist, broad at stem and stern,
awkward in manoeuvre, helpless in rough weather, sluggish under sail,
although possessing the single advantage of being able to crawl over a
smooth sea when better and faster ships were made stationary by
absolute calm, the galley was no match for the Dutch galleot, either at
close quarters or in a breeze.
Nevertheless for a long time there had been a certain awe produced by
the possibility of some prodigious but unknown qualities in these
outlandish vessels, and already the Hollanders had tried their hand at
constructing them. On a late occasion a galley of considerable size,
built at Dort, had rowed past the Spanish forts on the Scheld, gone up
to Antwerp, and coolly cut out from the very wharves of the city a
Spanish galley of the first class, besides seven war vessels of lesser
dimensions, at first gaining advantage by surprise, and then breaking
down all opposition in a brilliant little fight. The noise of the encounter
summoned the citizens and garrison to the walls, only to witness the
triumph achieved by Dutch audacity, and to see the victors dropping
rapidly down the river, laden with booty and followed by their prizes.
Nor was the mortification of these unwilling spectators diminished
when the clear notes of a bugle on board the Dutch galley brought to
their ears the well-known melody of "Wilhelmus of Nassau," once so
dear to every, patriotic heart in Antwerp, and perhaps causing many a
renegade cheek on this occasion to tingle with shame.
Frederic Spinola, a volunteer belonging to the great and wealthy
Genoese family of that name, had been performing a good deal of
privateer work with a small force of galleys which he kept under his
command at Sluys. He had succeeded in inflicting so much damage
upon the smaller merchantmen of the republic, and in maintaining so
perpetual a panic in calm weather among the seafaring multitudes of
those regions, that he was disposed to extend the scale of his operations.
On a visit to Spain he had obtained permission from Government to
employ in this service eight great galleys, recently built on the
Guadalquivir for the Royal Navy. He was to man and equip them at his
own expense, and was to be allowed the whole of the booty that might
result from his enterprise. Early in the autumn he set forth with his
eight galleys on the voyage to Flanders, but, off Cezimbra, on the

Portuguese coast, unfortunately fell in with Sir Robert Mansell, who;
with a compact little squadron of English frigates, was lying in wait for
the homeward-bound India fleet on their entrance to Lisbon. An
engagement took place, in which Spinola lost two of his galleys. His
disaster might have been still greater, had not an immense Indian
carrack, laden with the richest merchandize, just then hove in sight, to
attract his conquerors with a hope of better prize- money than could be
expected from the most complete victory over him and his fleet.
With the remainder of his vessels Spinola crept out of sight while the
English were ransacking the carrack. On the 3rd of October he had
entered the channel with a force which, according to the ideas of that
day, was still formidable. Each of his galleys was of two hundred and
fifty slave power, and carried, beside the chain-gang, four hundred
fighting men. His flag-ship was called the St. Lewis; the names of the
other vessels being the St. Philip, the Morning Star, the St. John, the
Hyacinth, and the Padilla. The Trinity and the Opportunity had been
destroyed off Cezimbra. Now there happened to be cruising just then in
the channel, Captain Peter Mol, master of the Dutch war-ship Tiger,
and Captain Lubbertson, commanding the Pelican. These two espied
the Spanish squadron, paddling at about dusk towards the English coast,
and quickly gave notice to Vice-Admiral John Kant, who in the States'
ship Half-moon, with three other war-galleots, was keeping watch in
that neighbourhood. It was dead calm as the night fell, and the galleys
of Spinola, which had crept close up to the Dover cliffs, were
endeavouring to row their way across in the darkness towards the
Flemish coast, in the hope of putting unobserved into the Gut of Sluys.
All went well with Spinola till the moon rose; but, with the moon,
sprang