Map 3: The skirmish off Plymouth and the aftermath
The skirmish off Plymouth, which is depicted on the left of the map, lasted about four hours. The Lord High Admiral, Lord Howard of Effingham’s Ark Royal attacked the Rata, depicted here on the Armada’s left flank, whilst others including Sir Francis Drake’s ship the Revenge and John Hawkins’s Victory attacked the rearguard. The only ship which stayed to fight them was Recalde’s San Juan de Portugal, which withstood their attacks for over an hour. The English withdrew when the Gran Grin, the galleon San Juan and the San Mateo sailed up to support her. The fighting ended around 1pm.
English ships can be seen leaving Plymouth in order to join the fleet, as only half of the Lord High Admiral, Lord Howard of Effingham’s fleet had put to sea the previous day.
Two ships are seen leaving the English Fleet, one of them being Sir Francis Drake’s Revenge; Drake wished to claim the Rosario as his prize. This was in direct contravention of the Lord High Admiral, Lord Howard of Effingham’s orders who had commanded Drake to track the Armada throughout the night with his stern lantern acting as a marker for the rest of the English fleet.
A barrel of gunpowder exploded on the San Salvador blowing up her decks and stern and wrecking her steering gear. The explosion is shown in red to the right flank of the Armada with the ship's stern on fire and flotsam in the sea. The fire was later taken under control and the ship taken into the fleet for the night.