20 July 1588
Departure
The Armada Fleets sets sail from Corunna
Historical place archive
Browse historical events and people recorded at Corunna in Spain. The records below are rendered directly from the World History Database into this page's initial HTML.
The Armada Fleets sets sail from Corunna
The English set alight eight fireships, sacrificing regular warships by filling them with pitch, brimstone, some gunpowder and tar, and cast them downwind among the closely anchored vessels of the Armada.
The Spanish feared that these uncommonly large fireships were "hellburners", specialised fireships filled with large gunpowder charges, which had been used to deadly effect at the Siege of Antwerp.
Two were intercepted and towed away, but the remainder bore down on the fleet. Medina Sidonia's flagship and the principal warships held their positions, but the rest of the fleet cut their anchor cables and scattered in confusion
Provenance
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