More information : Documentary Evidence relating to the Battle:
No.13: Sept. 20. Dartmouth. Nicholas Hayman, mayor of Dartmouth, to Sec. Cecil.
'The ELINOR of Lyme has come in from St. Malo, and brought the enclosed letter. David Bagwill, a merchant who has come in here, saw six Spaniards come into St. Malo on horseback . . . bound to the Archduke. They told M. Countrie and Bennett Serffe, an Englishman dwelling there, that six galleys have put into Bluet by force of weather, with 4,000 mariners and soldiers bound towards the Archduke, and, as it is supposed, a store of riches. Encloses:
No.13 (i): La Motte Colin to the Governor of Jersey.
' . . . I hope you received my letter about what Antoine Bonneville wrote of six galleys and 20 Spanish ships going to Ireland or Flanders, but rather the latter, as the King of Spain is sending there two or three millions of gold. St. Malo, 16/26 Sept. 1602.' (1)
No.14. Sept. 24. Blackfriars. Henry Lord Cobham to his brother-in-law, Sec. Cecil.
'By the enclosed packet brought in from Dover, you will see where the galleys are . . . ' Encloses:
No.14 (i): Sir Thos. Fane to Lord Cobham, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Lord Lieutenant of Kent. This afternoon at 5pm, Sir Robt. Mansell, with two of the Queen's ships and two Hollanders, discovered six galleys six or seven leagues eastward, and each two leagues apart. I have sent word into the Downs.
'PS. The galleys are over against Folkestone, and Sir Wm. Browne of Flushing, newly come to Dover, has gone aboard with Capt. Bredgate. Dover Castle, 6pm, 24 Sept. 1602.
No.15. Sept. 24. Blackfriars. Henry Lord Cobham to Sec. Cecil. I send news of what the Queen's ships have done. I hope the next news will be that the galleys are taken, which would be more famous than any action that has happened this great while. Encloses:
No.15 (i): Sir Thos. Fane to Lord Cobham. The Queen's ships have fought with the galleys and dispersed them, and greatly hurt them; three of their galley slaves leaped into the sea over against St. Margaret's, and swam ashore. I have put them into Dover Castle. Dover Castle, 10pm, 24 Sept. 1602.' (1)
No.16. Sept. 27. - to Lord -.
'As it is a ticklish thing for ships to intercept galleys, I let you know that having been advertised that Spinola passed hitherward from Lisbon, with six galleys for Sluys, Her Majesty appointed Sir Robt. Mansell to join with the States' fleet before Dunkirk and Sluys, to impeach them; Sir Robt. Mansell with three ships rode about Dungeness, a good distance apart. Two fly-boats rode higher to the westward, one to give the other the alarm; the rest rode before Dunkirk and Sluys. On Thursday last, one of the fly-boats met them holding their course north-east, whereupon the fly-boats wrought across the Channel. Sir Robert put himself into the middle of the Channel, and shot off to give the ships to the eastward warning.
'At last the galleys bore up close to the English shore, within the Goodwin towards the Downs, those ships sailing after sometimes shooting, but to little purpose, for night came on, whereupon five Flemings riding in the Downs, hearing the report of the ordnance, set sail ahead of them, and in a great storm, crossed them, and they seeking to make over towards the Flemish coast, three were shot and sunk, as Sir Robert has now brought word. Thereupon 16 or 17 sail that were riding before Dunkirk and Sluys weighed, had them in chase, and put them to the eastward of Sluys, by which all men assure themselves that they are all cast away, for the storm was such that Thursday night, as they had much ado to live themselves.' (1)
In No.17, dated Sept. 28 from Dover at 10pm, Sir Thomas Fane summarises his examination of the galley slaves in custody, revealing that there were 200 soldiers per galley, with 25 rowers on a side, four men to every oar. The slaves reported that 'all the treasure and adventure was Spinola's, as also the galleys and slaves, which he bought of the King.' (1) [For Dover Castle, please see record 467778.]
Oct. 2. London. John Chamberlain to Dud. Carleton [in Paris].
'Sir Robt. Mansfield [sic] and the Vice-Admiral of Flushing met six of Spinola's galleys, stemmed or overran two, and spoiled the rest, of which one is run aground near Calais.' (2)
Photograph of medal in the collections of the National Maritime Museum commemorating the action off the Goodwin Sands, with inscription on reverse: TRIREM VI DEPRESS. FRACT. FUGATISQ. Ao. MDCII. A conventionalised naval battle is seen with 6 galleys with oars, characterised as Spanish with crosses on their sails, and two other large ships from the opposing side in a close melee, possibly representing the act of ramming mentioned in (2) above. (3)
Catalogue entry [without photograph] of a similar medal in the collections of the British Museum. The inscription is translated thus: Six galleys sunk, wrecked and put to flight in the year 1602. The States of the United Provinces ordered this medal to be struck.' (4)
'The eight galleys which Leveson and Monson met at Cezimbra (of which they sank two) had been assembled by the indefatigable Spinola to reinforce his Flanders Squadron. This time he was not so lucky; conditions were again idea ('Galleys will outsail all ships in such a loom gale of wind and smooth sea as we had that night') but his enemies were forewarned and waiting for him in the Straits of Dover. The English squadron under Sir Robert Mansell intercepted some of the galleys and forced the rest into the hands of the Dutch. Only Spinola's own galley and one other escaped.' (5) [This referenced in part to Maunsell and Statham, "History of the Family of Maunsell", I, 372, London, 1917, which quotes Sir Robert Mansell's own work, "A true Report of the Service done upon certaine Gallies", London, 1602.]
Date of incident given as 23 September 1602. (6)
'In September 1602 he was sent out in command of a small squadron to intercept six galleys, which were reported on their way from Lisbon to the Low Countries. He posted himself with three ships off Dungeness, with two fly-boats to the westward. In the Downs and off Dunkirk were some Dutch ships. On the 23rd the galleys appeared and were at once attacked. After being very roughly handled by the English they dispersed and fled, but only to fall into the hands of the Dutch, by whom and by a gale which came on afterwards they were completely destroyed.' [This source is referenced to the Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 27 Sept. 1602 and to Mansell's own work, "A true Report . . . "]. (7)
Interpretation and Location of the Battle:
All sources appear to agree on six galleys intercepted by a combined Anglo-Dutch force. The battle has been named for the Goodwin Sands. Mansell appears to have been the first to intercept the passing galleys, 'in the middle of the Channel'. (1) It seems that, if, as in source (6), he was posted off Dungeness, with the Dutch lying further north in the Downs, and to the east off Dunkirk, he is likely to have headed north-east to intercept the Spanish galleys to prevent them passing further north, and done so at a point south of the Dutch waiting in the Downs.
The action will have been constrained by the presence of the Goodwin Sands themselves, as a notorious shipping hazard, so it is suggested here that the point at which Mansell intercepted the Spanish was somewhere to the south-west of the Goodwin Sands, within the Straits of Dover. The action took place quite 'close to the English shore, within the Goodwin towards the Downs', and 'over against Folkestone', suggesting that it was south of the Downs but heading northwards. This appears to be borne out by Sir Thomas Fane's letter in (1) in which he notes three galley slaves jumped overboard and swam towards St. Margaret's (St. Margaret-at-Cliffe), suggesting that at one point the action was thus fairly close to St. Margaret's.
The named location for the battle reflects this reasoning but is entirely arbitrary for the purposes of spatial representation, and may not necessarily reflect the actual location of the battle or of the consequent losses.
What happened next is unclear. It seems that two were certainly sunk by ramming, since two at least were 'stemmed or overran' in source (2). According to the anonymous letter in (1), three were 'shot and sunk'. The medal described in (3) and (4) states that six galleys were 'sunk, wrecked, or put to flight', but does not note the number of each.
Source (1) suggests that after the encounter a storm arose and the English were confident that the Spanish ships had been wrecked off Dunkirk or Sluys as it was 'such that Thursday night, as they [the English ships] had much ado to live themselves'.
Source (2) states that the remainder of the Spanish were 'spoiled', one of which ran aground near Calais, which would be consistent either with prior damage in battle and the account of three vessels 'shot and sunk', or with the events of the storm which overtook them.
The translation of FRACTI on the medal (3)(4) as 'wrecked' may, therefore, not be completely correct; it literally means 'broken' and can be used in many contemporary sources to mean 'wrecked', but it may refer to damage sustained, rather than being completely wrecked. It is therefore ambiguous. Only two ships are said to have escaped, Federico Spinola's vessel being among them, and one of these appears to have been driven ashore near Calais.
Source (6), synthesised from Mansell's own record, suggests that all the vessels were destroyed either in the action or subsequently by either the Dutch or the gale that sprang up afterwards. This may then mean that the ship at Calais was driven ashore there by the gale. Potentially, then, also, the gale may suggest that the translation of FRACTI as 'wrecked' is correct, and that any ships damaged or structurally weakened in the action were subsequently wrecked in the gale, possibly on the Goodwin Sands, and may also include the vessel recorded as stranded at Calais.
There are therefore four records for the lost ships arising out of this action: 1572903, 1572909, 1572913, and 1572915. Two are interpreted as rammed ships (1572903 and 1572909); the other two are interpreted as 'shot and sunk', i.e. foundering following gun action (1572913) and (1572915), with an acknowledgement that if three 'shot and sunk' is correct, and so as not to artificially inflate the numbers of ships lost, given that two out of six are said to have escaped, one of the rammed vessels may also have been subject to gun action. (7)
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