noon
A small galleon of Portugal called the Saint Anne being unable to keep pace with the rest of the fleet was set upon by a number of small English craft , seeing which three of the great galleasses rowed furiously to her aid . Lord Howard 's Ark Royal , the Golden Lion of his brother , Lord Sheffield 's Bear , and others towed by fisher boats met them with such salvos of shot that , had not the Spanish fleet come up to rescue them , they would have shared the fate of Valdez . After this time the galleasses would not fight again . The wind sprang up by noon and the fight became general . All afternoon it raged , and then , terribly battered , the Armada would fight no more ; but , `` gathering into a roundel '' set all sail for Calais , where Medina hoped to find a force from the French to help him and then to Dunkirk to join with Parma and the great flotilla of the Netherlands . And so with a full southwest wind the Spanish fleet went on , the English fleet following them . It was determined not to attack them until they reached the straits of Calais , where Lord Seymour and William Winter would join the navy .