ICO

HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

In 1628, the marine of Spain was reduced to so low a state, that the Dutch,its ancient vassals, who had so lately emancipated themselves from its yoke,attacked its galleons, captured some, and destroyed others, without the fear eitherof retaliation or chastisement. Peter I Ieyn, an officer whose name is still reveredamong the Hollanders, on account of the success that attended him, capturedan homeward bound Spanish fleet even in the neighbourhood of the Havannah,and found a booty on board it equal in value to eight millions of florins.Repeated disasters of the same nature, though not perhaps so consequential,induced the government to exert every nerve in the equipment of a fleet, whichVvas dispatched to the coast of Brazil, where the Dutch squadron had, for sometime, committed various depredations. Far as the number of vessels, and thecannon mounted on board them, may be supposed to constitute force, it mightbe considered as formidable ; but owing to the ill equipment of the ships, and'a sickness which raged among the crews, nearly approaching, in its deleteriouseffects, to a pestilence, it became rather the shadow of an armament, than onecapable of defending, on any case of real emergency, the honour, or the interestsof the country to which it belonged. Fortune, indeed, appeared to commiserate,for a moment, the fallen state of this once arrogant nation : for the Spaniards,falling in with the Dutch squadron, composed of seventeen vessels, ten of themfled at the mere sight of a fleet which so prodigiously outnumbered them. Ofthe remainder, one was sunk, the ship of the Dutch admiral blew up by accident,and five, by hard fighting*, defended themselves so successfully as to getclear.

Inconsiderable as the advantage was, and little as it certainly redounded toraise the honour and reputation of the Spanish marine, the king was so extremelyelated at the novelty of a negative victory, that, in order to commemorate it, heordered medals to be struck, on the reverse of which appeared the figure of Samp-son, (which was intended as an allegorical representation of himself,) in the actof tearing a lion to pieces. But this exultation was of very short duration ; for

* Four of the Spanish ships were sunk in the contest; and Oquendo, the Spanish admiral, was notonly incapacitated, in consequence of the injury his ships had sustained, from attempting any fartherhostilities during the remainder of the year, but being on his return to Europe early in the ensuing spring,he was attacked by a small squadron, consisting of four Dutch ships of war, which completely defeatedhim, with the loss of twenty-two officers, and seven hundred men killed; four of his ships, amongwhich was that of the vice-admiral, were taken. Such was die state of the Spanish marine, and suchwas their skiil, at that time of day, in naval tactics.

a fleet,