Still deeply engrained in the popular image of the Spanish Armada is a picture of looming Spanish galleons harrassed to their deaths by their tiny English countcrparts. Though this viewpoint has long been dispelled by research, the impact on contemporary opinion of one component of the Spanish fleet, the four galleasses of the Kingdom of Naples, is less well-known.

The galleasses, of which six had originally been planned for the Armada, were expected to play a key role in the fighting. Though frustratingly little technical information about them seems to have survived, they were originally intended for service in the Mediterranean, and were planned to combine the strengths of both oared and wind-powered warships. Though they were largely untested in northern waters, it was hoped that they would add the manouverability in all conditions of the galley to the firepower of the galleon.

The four vessels which sailed with the Armada were the "San Lorenzo", (flagship), "Zuniga", "Girona"" and "Napolitana" all about 10 years old. Although their exact dimensions are unclear, they seem to have shared the same basic characteristics, being about 150 feet long, with 3 square-rigged masts, and 28 rowing banks on each side. The particular feature of the galleasses was the heavy armament they carried, possibly larger in proportion than any other individual Armada ships. Though once again sources vary on detail, we have a reasonably accurate idea of the armament carried by the "San Lorenzo", which may be regarded as a good guide to that of her sister ships as well.

Castles

The design of the ships meant that they did not have the continuous gundeck of more orthodox vessels. Instead, the bulk of their ordnance was mounted in the raised "castles" at bow and stern.

The "San Lorenzo" had six big guns in the bows, ranged forwards, and 4 in the stern. These varied in weight of shot from 15 to 50 pounds. About 20 other guns of varying sizes wwere also crammed into the "castles", whilst along the raised catwalks which ran along the sides of the oar decks, and protected by heraldic shields, were 10 breech-loading light "esmeril" bronze guns. Unlikely to be of practical value, but possibly intended to have moral effect, was the iron ram mounted at the prow of each ship.

According to an English eye-witness, the oars of the galleasses were "all red, the sails had upon them the bloody sword [actually probably the familiar red cross] and the upper works of the vessels were also red.

Each vessel had about 300 oarsmen, not "slaves" as such, but usually convicts or prisoners of war. These, in theory at any rate, wore red uniforms. They were given a special high-energy diet, and good medical care. The four galleasses also carried a total of 468 seamen, and 875 soldiers. Squadron commander was Don Hugo de Moncada, generally regarded as an expert in galley warfare, who had however an increasingly uneasy relationship with the Spanish commander-in- chief, the Duke of Medina Sidonia.

Campaign

There is no doubt that the galleasses made a considerable moral impact on their English opponents from the start of the campaign. No such vessels had been seen previously outside the Mediterranean and some idea of their effect can be understood by the prominence which they are given in virtually all contemporary visual depietions of scenes from the campaign. They also loomed even more formidable in contemporary imagination than they acrually were in reality.

They were, an English report ran, "of such bignesse that they contained within them chambers chapels, turrets, pulpits and other commodities of great houses." Both sides awaited their contribution to the battle with considerable attention.

However their first employment, at any rate one felt worthy by contemporaries of note seems to have been on the evening of July 31st when two galleasses were used to salvage the damaged "San Salvador".

The galleasses made their combat debut in the action of August 1st, when two heavy ships of the Levant squadron. "La Rata Encoronada" and "La Trinidad Valencera" were each allocated a pair of galleasses to form in effect two battle groups which could be employed regardless of wind. However this formation seems to have been quickly abandoned when Medina Sidonia sighted Martin Frobisher in his great ship "Triumph" with five or six more of his squadron apparently isolated in the lee of Portland Hill. The galleasses were sent in to finish them off.

The action which followed was frustrating for Moncada and infuriating for Medina Sidonia. What seems to have happened is that the strong current and an ebbing tide of which Frobisher had doubtless been aware from the start prevented Moneada from coming to grips with the English force.

To Medina Sidonia, who had previously had words with the commander of his galleasses over the latter's wish to indulge in personal combat with the English flagship, "Ark Royal', which the Duke felt to be his personal perogative, it seemed that the galleasses were hovering nervously exchanging shots at extreme range and the infuriated commander-in-chief sent a pinnace carrying an officer "to say aloud to Don Hugo.... certain words which were not to his honour."

In any event the attack finally fizzled when English gunfire disrupted the gallcasses' oar-banks and forced them to rely on their inferior sail-power. It had not been an auspicious start.

More Success

However the squadron had more success on August 3rd. The flagship of the urcas" (transports) the "Gran Grifon" came under heavy attack from all sides and was left out of control. One galleass managed to pass a line to her and row her to safety whilst the others held off the English, possibly doing some damage to the mainyard of the "Revenge".

This had hardly been the battle-winning performance which had been expected of the galleasses and Moncada must have begun the action of August 4th eagerly seeking an opportunity to prove his worth. The fight had been moving steadily up-Channel and the rival fleets lay off the Solent with the Spaniards perhaps contemplating anchoring there when the wind dropped.

Two Spanish ships, the "San Luis de Portugal" and the "Santa Ana" had been becalmed away from the main fleet and were vulnerable to attack. The ships of John Hawkins' squadron lowered rheir boats which began to tow them towards their quarry.

The galleasses were of course designed for this kind of situation. Three of them appeared towing "La Rata Coronada" to add to the weight of their firepower and for a time the leading ships of Hawkins' squadron had a tough fight. But then the boats of other ships, including Lord Howard's "Ark Royal", began to pull them within range, and a sharp action took place in the dead calm. The chief English protagonists seem to have been "Ark Royal" and the "Golden Lion". Howard wrote; "'There were many good shots made by the "Ark" and the "Lion" in the sight of both armies".

He claimed that the galleasses were severely hit so that "one of them was fain to be carried away upon the careen [listing], and another, by a shot from the "Ark" lost her lantern which came swimming by, and the third his nose". Even if true, none of this amounted to serious damage, and Howard's claim that the galleasses never saw action again is untrue. Certainly they achieved their primary objective on this occasion, and pulled the "San Luis " and "Santa Ana" to safety.

An English account admitted that the galleasses had played a useful role: the "four galleasses made the most answer and offer of fight against us that was made, whereby they showed themselves to be ships of warlike force. For they having the vantage by their oars might back and take at their pleasure, and by reason thereof did often times issue forth of their squadrons as I may term it, as well to rescue their fellows sometimes distressed, as also give charge upon some of ours, and at their pleasure retired."

The Spaniards however had found their performance very disappointing. The galleasses proving very difficult to manouvere under oars, and inadequate under sail. Probably the powerful currents of the English Channel had proved a major factor in their ineffectiveness.

The Armada now anchored under the guns of Calais, hoping to gain touch with the troops of thc Duke of Parma. In a famous episode, the English on August 7th used fireships to force them out to sea.

Panic

In the panic and confusion, the "San Lorenzo" suffered the effects of what seems to have been a major weakness in the design of the galleasses. when her rudder was damaged in a collision, and without steering, she went aground under Calais Castle. Here next morning she was attacked by a swarm of English invaders, and after Moncada was shot dead whilst leading the defence, ransacked. She eventually became a total loss.

The role of the remaining galleasses in the battle of Gravelines (August 8th) is unknown: it seems fairly certain however, that they must have suffered battle-damage there.

The voyage home was to prove as perilous for them as for the rest of the Armada. The "Girona" suffered the same rudder failure as had afflicted her flagship and was wrecked on the Irish coast. The "Zuniga" also lost her rudder, and drifted helplessly in the Atlantic for a month before fetching up on the coast of France.

The galleasses were felt to have been a costly failure, but this is perhaps unjust. They were in fact warships of some potential if employed in the right conditions. But the stormy and turbulent waters of the English Channel and the Atlantic were not those conditions, and it was this which brought them to disaster rather than any failure of fighting skill or determination.

Sources

Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe, The Spanish Armada, 1988.
Martin, Colin and Parker, Geoffrey, The Spanish Armada, 1988.
Mattingly, Garrett, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1959.
Time-Life, The Armada, 1981.