Morning, July 31 1588: Drake vs Recalde

[MengJiao]

  So in the morning as the English ships...quite a few of them...sailed out of Plymouth to the windward of the Spanish Fleet, Drake and his squadron tried to slide around Recalde's inshore squadron.  Recalde was there in the forefront of the action his galleon San Juan.  I'm using modfied Flying Colors rules (ships are slower and have less firepower).  We'll see what happens.

PS-- July 31 is the New Style date for this action.  Since Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1582 and the English did not adopt the Gregorian Calendar for another 170 years or so, in 1588, the English would have seen the battle as occuring on July 21.

[MengJiao]

  So in the morning as the English ships...quite a few of them...sailed out of Plymouth to the windward of the Spanish Fleet, Drake and his squadron tried to slide around Recalde's inshore squadron.  Recalde was there in the forefront of the action his galleon San Juan.  I'm using modfied Flying Colors rules (ships are slower and have less firepower).  We'll see what happens.

  One turn in and I can sort of see what Drake might have been trying to do:
   With Recalde reaching downwind, the slower storeships behind his line would tend to fall behind and fall prey to Drake's ships.  Historically this did not
happen because Recalde held on his the ship that was went to relieve him (the flagship of the neighboring squadron Nuestra Senora de la Rosario
) rammed two ships and accompanied Recalde's ship into a sheltered part of the Spanish Fleet as night fell and the wind came up.  Whereupon, one Spanish ship blew up and the Rosario fell behind the rest of the fleet.  Drake took that ship during the night.
  But -- back to our action-pack simulation:


   

[MengJiao]

  One turn in and I can sort of see what Drake might have been trying to do:
   With Recalde reaching downwind, the slower storeships behind his line would tend to fall behind and fall prey to Drake's ships.  Historically this did not
happen because Recalde held on his the ship that was went to relieve him (the flagship of the neighboring squadron Nuestra Senora de la Rosario
) rammed two ships and accompanied Recalde's ship into a sheltered part of the Spanish Fleet as night fell and the wind came up.  Whereupon, one Spanish ship blew up and the Rosario fell behind the rest of the fleet.  Drake took that ship during the night.
  But -- back to our action-pack simulation:
 

   It's wierd how putting a simulation together can clarify odd actual events.  For example...why would Recalde of the Portuguese Biscay Squadron enounter the commander of the Andalusian squadron (the next Squadron to the south)?  Because Recalde would go on reaching after getting hammered up north and head south (Recalde is under the inverted 4 and the Purissima Conception has just set the Victory on fire):

[MengJiao]

   It's wierd how putting a simulation together can clarify odd actual events.  For example...why would Recalde of the Portuguese Biscay Squadron enounter the commander of the Andalusian squadron (the next Squadron to the south)?  Because Recalde would go on reaching after getting hammered up north and head south (Recalde is under the inverted 4 and the Purissima Conception has just set the Victory on fire):

  Still, Recalde heads south and hits accummulate on the Biscay Squadron (14 on Biscay vs 4 and a fire on Drake's ships):

[MengJiao]

   It's wierd how putting a simulation together can clarify odd actual events.  For example...why would Recalde of the Portuguese Biscay Squadron enounter the commander of the Andalusian squadron (the next Squadron to the south)?  Because Recalde would go on reaching after getting hammered up north and head south (Recalde is under the inverted 4 and the Purissima Conception has just set the Victory on fire):

  Still, Recalde heads south and hits accummulate on the Biscay Squadron (14 on Biscay vs 4 and a fire on Drake's ships):

  And things go on: