A TRUE REPORT OF THE SERVICE DONE UPON CERTAIN Galleys passing through the Narrow Seas: Written to the Lord high Admiral of England, by Sir ROBERT MANSEL Knight, Admiral of her majesties forces in that place.  
AT LONDON Printed by Felix Kyngston, and are to be sold by john Newberry, at his shop in Paul's Churchyard. 1602.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MY SINGULAR AND BEST Lord, the Earl of Nottingham, Lord high Admiral of England.  
MY duty to your Lordship humbly remembered. Although the service which I confess I do owe unto your Lordship in a manner from my childhood for many favours, doth so much oblige me, as I cannot think how ever it may fall in my power to express it: yet cannot I but acknowledge that those favours of yours, whereby any public trust or service hath been committed to me, do sit nearest my heart, and as often as I do think of them, do call me to a stricter account than any others, which do only touch me in a private quality: for that in the one, I am only obliged to acquit my honesty towards your love: but in the others I am bound in a sort to make good your judgement, and to justify the choice you have made of me, as a servant of the State, for whom yourself are accountable to her from whom all power in our State is derived. The sense which hereof I have in the inwardest retreat of my soul, is the cause I have thought my duty both to you, and to the State not a little interessed, in a report very vulgar in many men's mouths in the City, and by this time perhaps spread over the Realm. And confirmed by a Pamphlet printed, containing a narration of the late service done upon the Galleys: wherein no mention being made, neither of myself, nor of any of her majesties Ships, nor of our nation, we are all secretly touched with some note, either of negligence of the things committed to us, (I specially) or of unskilfulness, or of want of courage: from the stains of all which it importeth me to clear myself, not only for mine own sake, and our nations; but in some sort for your Lordship, who through my errors cannot but be wounded, for the ill choice made of me, for so great a charge: I have therefore (though against my nature, which delighteth not to talk of myself) been forced for your Lordship, and all other men's satisfaction, to express in a few lines, a true report of all that was done in that service: which as it is free from affectation of glory to myself, or of imputation to others; so do I upon all the duty I owe, both to your Lordship, and to my own reputation, undertake to make good in every point thereof. Beseeching your Lordship notwithstanding, not to repose yourself only upon mine own assertions: but by diligent inquisition (which is not hard for your Lordship to make, having so much power over the whole company that served with me) thoroughly to inform yourself of as much as may suffice to satisfy your judgement: which if thereby you shall find confirmed so much as not to repent you of the trust by your favour committed unto me, it is the utmost of my desire, weighing otherwise little what the vulgar conceits of such as either cannot, or will not think aright, shall esteem of me: if by this true report of my service they will not be satisfied. For it is those that can judge, whom I desire most to content, and specially your Lordship, to whom I do with as much truth and sincerity dedicate all other services which I may be able to do, as I have used in setting down this: which I beseech you to accept as a small testimony thereof.  
Your Lordships in all devotion: ROBERT MANSEL.   

A TRUE REPORT OF THE SERVICE DONE UPON CERTAIN GALLEYS passing through the Narrow Seas.  
ON the three and twenty day of September being in the Hope, and having in my company, the Advantage only of the Queen's Ships, which Captain jones commanded, and two other Dutch men of war: I rid more than half Channel over, towards the coast of France, upon a Northwest and Southest line: myself being nearest that coast, Captain jones next unto me, and the Dutch men of war a Seaboord, and to the westward of him. The small force at that time present and with me remaining, thus disposed for the intercepting of the Galleys, having dismissed the Dutch men of war, that served under me, upon their own entreaty to revictual and trim: and having employed the rest of the Queen's ships upon especial services, I descried from my top mast heads, six low sails, which some made for Galleys; others affirmed them to be small barks that had strooken their topsails, being bound from Deep towards the Downs. To which opinion (though I inclined most) yet caused I the Master to way and to stand with them, that I might learn some news of the Galleys, which by your Lordship's advertisement sent me, I knew had either past me that night, or were near at hand: unless the Sea had swallowed them up in the storms, which had raged three days before. Having set myself under sail, the weather waxed thick, which caused me to lascke some two points from the wind, towards the English coast, lest the continuance of that dark weather might give them power to run out a head of me. About eleven of the clock the weather cleared, when I discovered them plainly to be the Spanish Galleys so long time expected; at which time with the rest, I plied to receive them by crossing their forefoote, as they stood alongst the Channel: which they endeavoured, till they perceived that by the continuance of that course, they could not escape the power of my Ordinance. All this time these two Fliboates were betwixt them and me: and as the Slaves report that swum a shore at Dover, they determined with three Galleys to have boarded each of those Ships, and would have executed that resolution, but for the fear of her majesties great Galion (as the termed the Hope) whose force that they shunned in that kind (considering the disadvantage that twice six of the best Galleys that ever I saw, hath by fight against one Ship of her force) I do as much commend, as otherwise I do detest their shameful working in that full of cowardliness and weakness, they rowed back to the westward, and spent the day by running away: in hope that the darkness of the night would give them liberty sufficient to shun the only Ship they feared, or that was in deed in the Sea at that time, to give them cause of fear, I mean betwixt them and Dunkirk or Newport. This error only of theirs bred their confusion, as you may perceive by the sequel. For they no sooner began that course of rowing back again; but I instantly made signs for Captain jones in the Advantage of the Queens, to come unto me: whom I presently directed to repair to Calais road; and thence to send the alarm unto the State's army prepared before Sluice: and to advise such men of war as kept on the coast of Flanders, upon any other occasion, to stand off to the Sea, to meet with the Galleys in the night, which should be chased by me with my lights in my Topmast heads, and a continual discharging of my Ordinance. Captain jones having shaped his course according to my directions: I gave order for hoisting and trimming of my Sails by the wind, to keep sight of the Galleys: the two Fliboates being still a weather of me, did the like. Which chase we held till sun setting, observing this course following all the day. They being a weather of me, kept their continual boards, that the Galleys were always betwixt them. And myself being to Leeward, made such short turns, as I kept all the afternoon in a manner, even in the very eye of their course, betwixt them and the place of their design: ever discharging my best Ordinance to warn the Answer of her Majesties, that rid by my directions at the Downs, upon important service as your Lordship knoweth: and the Flemings that were there, having left the Sea upon unknown grounds to me (yet sent from Portsmouth, by the most provident direction of her sacred Majesty, to await the coming of the Galleys, upon advertisements that her Highness received of their being put to Sea) to set sail, who else had received no understanding of the Galleys: neither came they within shot of them, till after night, howsoever the reputation of the service is wholly challenged by them.  
Having given your Lordship an account how this day was thus spent by me, from eight of the clock until the evening, and with these only helps: I beseech your Lordship to be pleased to understand, that with the setting of the Sun, I could both discern the Ships last mentioned under sail at the Downs, and the Galleys to have set their sails: directing their course close aboard our shore, each of them being out of sight of the other, and my Dutch consorts by this time to have been left by the Galleys to a stern chase. When I perceived them to hold that course, which would bring them within shot of the Answer, and the rest that were in the Downs: I held a clean contrary course from them, towards the coast of France, to confirm the secure passage they thought to find on our coast, which I continued, until the report of their battery gave me assurance of the Galleys being engaged unto tham.  
How the battery began, who began it, how it was continued, how ended, and to whom the reputation of the service is due, I leave to be considered by your Lordship, by the perusal of the true discourse following.  
The Answer of the Queens, which Captain Bredgate commanded, as she rid more Southerly at the Downs than the Flemings, so came she first to the Galleys, and bestowed 28. pieces of Ordinance on them before the Flemings came in, who at length seconded him with very many shot. During this battery of ours upon the Galleys, (which I so term, because they never exchanged one shot) at the very first report of the Answers Ordinance, I directed the Master of my ship to bear up with the South end of the Goodwin, with which directions I delivered my reasons publicly, as I stood on the poop of my ship, viz. That if I stood directly in to them, the Galleys, before I could recover the place, would either be driven a shore or sunk, and so would there prove no need of my force; or else by their nimble sailing they would escape the ships, of whom (once getting a head) they could receive no impediment: for there was no one ship but the Advantage in the sea that could hinder them to recover any port in Flanders or the East Countries (Sluice only excepted) unless I stayed them at that sand head.  
Having recovered as near that place as I desired, I stayed at least a quarter of an hour, before I could either see Galley, hear or see any of those Ships, their lights, or report of their Ordinance, which made me and all my company hold opinion that they had outsailed the Answer and the rest of the Flemings, and shunned sight of me by going a-seaboard of my ship: which I so verily believed, as I once directly determined to sail for Sluice, with hope only that the preparation which I knew the States had there, would be able to prevent their entrance into that place.  
Whilst I remained thus doubtful, or rather hopeless to hinder their recovery of Dunkirk or Newport, in case they had been a-seaboard of me, some of my company descried a single galley plying from the shore to get a head of my ship. When she approached within Caliver shot, I discharged above thirty pieces of Ordinance of my lower & upper tire at her alone, myself with many other in my ship saw when her maineyard was shot asunder, heard the report of many shot that hit her hull, heard many their most pitiful outcries: which when I perceived to continue, and in steed of making way from me, to near me what she could; I forbore shooting, and commanded one that spoke the Portugal language, to tell them that I was contented to receive them into mercy: which I would accordingly have performed, had not the other five Galleys offered to stand out a head of me at that very instant, and thereby would have left me as they had done both the first two Dutch ships, and afterwards the Answer with the rest of the Flemings, had I omitted any small time of executing the advantage I had of their being on my broad side, which as appears was so effectually employed (howsoever the night wherein this service was performed, might hinder the particular mention of their hurts) as none can deny but that God pleased thereby only to work their confusion. For since that time none hath said or can speak of any one shot made towards them: yet four of them are sunk and wracked, the fifth past doing the enemy service: and the sixth they are forced to new build at Dunkirk, where (if I be not much deceived) she will prove more chargeable than profitable, if the fault rest not in ourselves.  
The disagreement between the Dutch Captains themselves touching the stemming and sinking of the Galleys (whereof one challenged before your Lordship, and in many other public places, to have stemmed and sunk two himself) and the printed Pamphlet containing the stemming and sinking of three Galleys, giveth the reputation thereof to three several Captains, amongst whom no mention is made of the first: and whereas there are but two in all sunk; I leave to be reconciled amongst themselves, and to your Lordship, whether that the same of right appertaineth not to her majesties Ship the Hope, in respect of the allegations before mentioned, every particular whereof being to be proved by the oaths of my whole Company, and maintained with the hazard of my life with that which followeth.  
1 As the shooting of the single Galleys main-yard asunder, my bestowing above thirty pieces of Ordinance upon that one galley, within less than Caliver shot.  
2 That they in the Galley made many lamentable outcries for my receiving them unto mercy.  
3 That I would accordingly have received them, but for giving them over to encounter with the other five Galleys, which else had left me to a stern chase.  
To these reasons I add the assertions of the Vice-admiral himself, who told me (whatsoever he spoke in other places) that one of the Galleys, which he stemmed, had her maineyard shot asunder before his coming aboard her: by whom soever she was then stemmed, your Lordship may judge, who ruin'd her, considering she made no resistance, by his own report, but by crying to him for mercy.  
Touching the other Galley stemmed and sunk, I have already proved how she (as all the rest) had got a head the Answer of the Queens not named, and the rest of the Statesmen of war with her, who challenge the whole credit of this service: They (as all other Seamen) cannot deny, but that the Galleys will outsaile all Ships, in such a loom gale of wind and smooth sea, as we had that night.  
The Galleys being then quicker of sail than they, how could they by any means possible fetch them up, but by some impediment? Impediment they received none, but by my Ordinance: which amounted to fifty great shot at those five which came last from the shore, when all the ships were above a mile a stern.  
Some notwithstanding out of their detracting dispositions may perchance say, that the two which were wrecked at Newport would have perished by storm, though they had not been battered. Whereto though I have sufficiently answered, first in showing that they might have recovered any of the places thereabouts before 8. of the clock that night but for me; and then the second time before the morning, had they not been encountered by me alone, at the South-sand head: yet for further proof that they miscarried by our battery only, I say that if one of the Galleys which received least damage by our Ordinance did outlive Fridays storm, continuing till Saturday noon, being driven among the Islands of Zealand to recover Calais, then surely those two (unless they had been exceedingly torn) would have made shift to have recovered the Ports of Newport, graveling or Dunkirk: especially sith from the place where I battered them, they might have been at the remotest of those places about four hours before any storm began. But such seemed their haste to save their lives, as their thought ran of a shore, and not of a harbour.  
Now that I have delivered unto your Lordship the whole and true discourse of this business, I shall forbear to trouble your patience with any further relation of that night and next days spending my time (though the same in their chase had like to have cost her Majesty her Ship, & the lives of as many as were in her) and conclude with admiration of their not holding her majesties ships, nor I (her unworthiest servant) and then and yet by her highness grace and your Lordship's favour, Admiral of the forces in that place, are not once mentioned: especially sith the six Galleys might safely have arrived before seven of the clock that night at any of the Ports of Flaunders to the Westward of Ostend. And that the Dutch ships had not come from an anchor in the Downs, but for the signs they received from me. Then that the force of her majesties Ship, wherein I was, enforced them to keep close aboard the English shore, whereby those Ships in the Downs had power given them to come to fight, which fight was begun by the Answer of the Queens.  
And lastly, sith the Galleys escaped their battery, and had gotten a head those Ships, above a mile at least, and never received any impediment after, but only by me, who lingered them (as you have heard) until the coming up of those Ships that challenge to stem them: which being granted, I cannot see how any other credit can rightly be given them (for that stem I mean) then to a lackey for pillaging of that dead body which his master had slain.  
ALthough this be a very true report of that which was done in this service, and be a thing very plausible to all that are well affected to the good success of her majesties affairs: yet should it not have moved me much who were esteemed to have been the chief actor in so good a work; or to whom any augmentation of credit might grow thereby, were it not that I have found some, who (I deny not) have had their part in that service, have been so far transported with the opinion of their own desert therein, as they have not let in setting forth their own commendation, to cast a stain upon other men's, who had a greater part in the work then themselves, as may appear by the report above recited. Which notwithstanding should the less trouble me, if the touch thereof did reach only to myself as a private gentleman: but seeing the imputation, as it may be gathered in a Pamphlet printed, containing a report of that service, wherein no mention at all is made either of me, or of any other her majesties servants or Ships, or of any of our nation, doth derogate not only from myself, but in some sort from the diligence and vigilancy of all public ministers of her majesties Navy: it behoved me to have so much sense of mine and their reputations, as by a true report of the thing (as indeed it was done) to redeem the slander that in some men's conceits (whose ears are quick enough to receive ill impressions of public officers) might be easily laid upon us. For which only cause is this report published. For how little respect I had to affect reputation to myself by publishing any report of that which had passed in this service, may appear by this one circumstance: that as soon as I had presented myself to your Lordship, and Master Secretary at the Court at Oatelands, and been by your Honours presented to her Majesty, and made report of that which had passed: my first suit was, to be licenced to go into the country (as your Honour can well witness) whither immediately I repaired attending my own business, and from thence returned but very lately, without any thought or purpose of declaiming my own actions, or of any other thing, more than of returning to my charge, until coming to the City I found every man's mouth full of an injurious report of that service, and likewise a Pamphlet printed by the procurement of some who had had to do in that service, which did confirm the misconceit thereof. Wherefore I have been constrained to do that, which otherwise (as I have said) is not agreeable to my nature, that is, to speak of myself. But I shall be herein the more to be excused, because the matter doth concern me not only as a private person, but as a public servant of the State: towards which it becometh me to make clear all actions wherewith I am put in trust. For which respect I must also add this much more; that if any man will take exception to any point of that which I have here above upon so good consideration set down: I would have him understand that I have not lightly put forth this report, as a blast to fill men's ears: but so advisedly, that at all times I will be ready to maintain and justify the truth thereof, in such sort as becometh a Gentleman professing Arms; and bearing the charge, which by her majesties favour I do, to justify any thing, which he taketh upon the hazard of his reputation to report. And in assurance thereof I have to this report set my hand, and published it in my name.  
ROBERT MANSEL.