noon
The English admiral saw at once that , with the wind rising from the south , if he could drive the unwieldy galleons north they would be cut off from Dunkirk , and would not be able to beat back again until there was a change of wind . All through the morning the English ships poured a continuous shower of shot into the Spanish vessels , which , huddled together in a confused mass , were unable to make any return whatever . The duke and Oquendo , with some of the best sailors among the Fleet , tried to beat out from the crowd and get room to manoeuvre , but Drake 's ships were too weatherly and too well handled to permit of this , and they were driven back again into the confused mass , which was being slowly forced towards the shoals and banks of the coasts . Howard came up at noon with his division , and until sunset the fire was maintained , by which time almost the last cartridge was spent , and the crews worn our by their incessant labour . They took no prizes , for they never attempted to board . They saw three great galleons go down , and three more drift away towards the sands of Ostend , where they were captured either by the English garrisoned there or by three vessels sent by Lord Willoughby from Flushing , under the command of Francis Vere . Had the English ammunition lasted but a few more hours the whole of the Armada would have been either driven ashore or sunk ; but when the last cartridge had been burned the assailants drew off to take on board the stores which had , while the fighting was going on , been brought up by some provision ships from the Thames .