But the Spaniards were six
thousand short, through sickness and desertion, and of the remaining
twenty-four thousand little more than a quarter were seamen. The rest
were soldiers, with many camp-followers. The fifteen thousand English,
on the other hand, were nearly all on board; and most of them had been
trained to sea fighting from their youth up. The Spaniards were
one-quarter seamen and three-quarters landsmen. The English were
three-quarters seamen and one-quarter landsmen; and most of these
landsmen were like the Marines of the present day, "soldier and sailor
too." Nor was this the only difference that helped to seal the fate of
the doomed Armada. For not only were the English seamen twice as many
and twice as good as the Spanish seamen, but in the numbers of their
trained seamen-gunners the English beat the Spaniards no less than ten
to one: and guns were the weapons that decided the issue of the day,
just as they did at Jutland in our recent war against the Germans.
A little before sunset the mist lifted, and the Spaniards, to their
intense surprise, saw the whole English fleet together.
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