But now ship after ship of the English had come up, each throwing
its iron over the nearest Spaniard and striving to board her high
red sides. Twenty ships were drifting in furious single combat
after the manner of the Philippa, until the whole surface of the
sea was covered with a succession of these desperate duels. The
dismasted carack, which the King's ship had left behind it, had
been carried by the Earl of Suffolk's Christopher, and the water
was dotted with the heads of her crew. An English ship had been
sunk by a huge stone discharged from an engine, and her men also
were struggling in the waves, none having leisure to lend them a
hand. A second English ship was caught between two of the Spanish
vessels and overwhelmed by a rush of boarders so that not a man of
her was left alive. On the other hand, Mowbray and Audley had
each taken the caracks which were opposed to them, and the battle
in the center, after swaying this way and that, was turning now in
favor of the Islanders.
The Black Prince, with the Lion, the Grace Marie and four other
ships had swept round to turn the Spanish flank; but the movement
was seen, and the Spaniards had ten ships with which to meet it,
one of them their great carack the St. Iago di Compostella. To
this ship the Prince had attached his little cog and strove
desperately to board her, but her side was so high and the defense
so desperate that his men could never get beyond her bulwarks but
were hurled down again and again with a clang and clash to the
deck beneath.
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