THE FATAL NORTH ABOUT

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 432, 6 December 1918, Page 1

THE FATAL NORTH ABOUT

(Written specially for the " Times") The two greatest perils England has ever had to faoe since the Norman conquest have undoubtedly been from the Spanish Armada and from the war which we have just won, Had either succeeded England would have lost for ever her place as the foremost nation on earth, and in each case her salvation lay mainly in the resource and gallantry of her sea-faring men. And by a singular coincidence in each case the fleet upon which the enemy depended was forced to the North About, and its career as a weapon of offence for ever ended. My readers may have forgotten the circumstances under which the Armada came to be built. Mary, Queen of Scots, left in her will the somewhat shadowy claim she had to the throne of England to the daughter of Philip of Spain. Philip claimed the right to take possession of England in his daughter's name, and finding his demands laughed at prepared the greatest fleet ever known to invade and conquer the country. He was delayed in his enterprise for a year by Drake, who, with four Queen's ships and a few armed merchantmen he had borrowed, sailed boldly into Cadiz harbour and destroyed a great part of the armament with which Philip designed to bring Queen Elizabeth and her insolent islanders to their knees. This was an enterprise as daring and as hazardous as our attack on Zeebrugge, and was called by Drake " Singeing the King of Spain's beard." But at last the Great Armada was ready, and in 1588 came sailing up the English Channel. Nothing like it had ever been seen before as it came on in the form of a gigantic crescent, seven miles from horn to horn. One hundred and thirty great ships of war there wore, beside which the largest vessel of the English was but a pigmy. The Invincible Armada it was called by the Spanish, and invincible indeed it must have appeared to the anxious watchers from the shore. But English sailors are at their very best when attempting the seemingly impossible and out of Plymouth Harbour sailed their fleet to meet the enemy. Howard of Effingham was in command, and with him were the greatest of the seamen who have made the history of the Elizabethan age one long wonderful romance. Drake was there, and old Hawkins, and Frobisher and Davis, who made such wonderful voyages in the frozon north. There also were Thomas, Earl of Cumberland, and Raliegh, and the two Cecils, Robert and Thomas, with a score of other distinguished sailors. They had but twenty-eight men of war, and some hastily armed merchantmen, but they chased the Spaniards up the Channel, hanging on his rear, worrying his flanks, cutting out and capturing or sinking here a ship and there a ship till worn out and disheartened the Invincible Armada ran for the shelter of Calais Harbour. But they were not allowed to rest there. Howard sent eight fireships in among them, so that they were forced to cut their cables and run for the open sea again. The game was up, and all the Spaniards thought of now was to get home again. But they dared not face the narrow channel while these terrible English were afloat. So it was North About, in the run for safety, and they scattered over the expanse of the North Sea, hoping to reach Cadiz after making a complete circuit of the British Isles. But few of them ever did for the English took toll of th6Li while powder and shot lasted, and the rocky coasts of Scotland and Ireland broke the bones of many more, so that only the shat tered remnant of the Invincible Armada got back.

And it was North About again last week. All that was worth having of tbe disgraced German Fleet, that was built to us, but dared not do so, made an ignominious surrender to our sailors who had longed to meet them through four weary years. Between the two lines of grimly silent English warships they steamed, with Beatty following them in the Queen Elizabeth—what an inspiration the naming of her was—to receive their ignominious surrender. And so, North About once irore, the great fleet that was to have borne the flag of the " Admiral of the Atlantic" to the conquest of the world was eseoitcd round on the track of the Armada to Scapa Flow in the Outer Hebrides. And there it will lie till the Allies settle how to diepose of it, but never again will it go back to its builders. And the meteor flag of England flies higher than ever.