Darkness had fallen when the great gale the sailors had smelled came roaring out of the southwest. The light on the masthead of King Philip’s ship went out in the smother, and each of the clumsy, creaking hulks, with their burdens of frightened horses and drenched and panicky noblemen, fought alone against a black, howling universe. Forty-two hours the gale blew, scattering the Flemish fleet along the Channel, and driving it towards the English coast. In sight of breakers the King-Archduke’s ship dragged her anchor; later, drying to claw off she lost a mast and nearly capsized; for a time a fire in the forecastle threatened a second danger.
[…]
Only Queen Joanna, crouched at her husband’s feet, her arms locked tightly about his knees, seemed calm, almost exultant, throughout the worst of the danger. Finally, on January 13, battered and leaking and partially dismasted, King Philip’s ship worked its way at high water into the shallow harbor of Melcombe Regis, near Weymouth in Dorset. Later, two others straggled in to join her, and another, waving helplessly, was driven past. All along the coast from Falmouth to the Isle of Wight others of the fleet took refuge. The Venetian ambassador found himself in the harbor of Plymouth in a ship which he did not think would stand the battering of the sea another six hours.
Two great ships and several smaller craft floundered or broke up upon the sands. At one place a few bedraggled Flemings came ashore in their shirts, at another only the bodies of the drowned.
Source:
Mattingly, Garrett. “Part I: A Spanish Princess (1485-1509); Chapter 3, Section v” Catherine of Aragon. New York: Quality Paperback , 1990. 79. Print.
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