SEA EPIC

Hokitika Guardian, 23 November 1928, Page 2

SEA EPIC

Aug. 31—Capture of the Revenge, 1591

There is a Revenge in our Navy List. There always is. It is a name the Fleet does not readily forget. The Revenge of to-day is a battleship of 26,000 tons; but the little Revenge whose undying glory, we recall was a ship of 500 tons —Drake’s ship, when be sailed to meet the Armada. Three years had passed since then. Sir Richard Grenville was her commander now; and she was lying in wait, off the Azores, with 15 other ships, for a Spanish treasure convoy, when news came that a fleet of 53 Spanish men o’war was bearing towards them.

Howard, our admiral, was not prepared to fight at such odds as that—far more than three to one, when you reckon lie Spaniards’ weight of guns. He slipped to sea with his squadron — all except the Revenge.

What happened exactly we shall never know—whether it was a ease of the telescope to the Blind eye; or whether half the Revenge’s crew wore on shore leave and could not get back in time; but tlie upshot was, the Revenge stayed—and fought.

Fought! Was ever sucli a battle in all our.history upon the sea? She had half her crew sick; could muster, perhaps, 100 fit men. Towering above her was the mighty San Felipe, her three decks bristling with 80 guns. Four Spanish ships at once boarded her. Back to back, Grenville and his men beat them over the gunwbnle. They sank the San Felipe. They sank two more besides, and drove a fourth ashore. But there came a time when they had done all that men—even Englush sailormen of Gloriana’s day—could do. What next, but to blow their ship-—and themselves— sky-high, so that the Dons might not have her? But- the Spanish admiral was a sportsman. After such a fight, man alive, he said, should go scot-free,

if they would givo in now; and they struck their flag. Not long did the Revenge brook the enemy’s ensign at her stattered masthead. Scarce was the prize crew on board when the little ship sank. In a few days her commander, mortally wounded in the thick of the fight, had gone to meet her in Davy Jones s locker; thanking Hcavan mat lie had died “as a valiant soldier in his duty is bound to die; lighting for his Queen, bis religion and bis honoui. You can read about tbo figbt ill better prose than this—Sir Walter Raleigh s. Tennyson lias told it in undying verse. Read it to your children, then; lor England’s annals hold no more gallant story. A.B.L.