Royal Navy and the Spanish Fleet

Just saw a program on the British cannons in the 16th century and they claim that the idea was brought from somewhere in Germany, whose model was better and had a longer reach than the Spanish version ( against whom they had to create new tactics ). I don´t remeber the name of the man who brought the knowledge but it was something like "Höffler" or the kind that had created the original principle and actually the British awarded the man with gold for the new excellent weapon. Anyone saw this document or know more of this?

The document as well says that the Royal navy victory was based on several things: faster ships, better long reaching cannons and new tactics which included the fire-ships.

The testing ground for the new cannons took place at Cadiz in 1587 when Sir Francis Drake destroyed the Sapnish supply ships thus preventing the Spanish Fleet attack for one year!

Drake on his raid:

http://www.hillsdale.edu/oldacademics/history/war/Navy2/1587-DrakeCadiz.htm

 

Kai,
This was part of what they call the "military revolution".
Can't remember if it was Drake's day or not, but the British navy used a system of ropes to act as a recoil buffer on shipboard cannon, meaning they didn't have to physically move them that far once they were reloaded.
Think the British were amongst the first to lose the idea of ships being floating fortresses, ie the cannon were only used to soften the ship up for the boarding party. The idea now was to destroy the rigging, or hole the enemy below the waterline.
In Drake's time, ships weren't purpose-built by the Crown unless strictly necessary due to the cost. This was where privateers came in. One of the reasons the Royal Navy overtook the Dutch after the war in the 1660s, was because the Royal Navy started to purpose build fighting ships to help defend the East India Company, whereas the Dutch couldn't afford to do the same.

Regards,

Gordon

 

Thanx Gordon,

as well I just remembered that the British had taught men to shoot so they could fire every other minute while the Spanish could once in ten minutes according to the document...

Doesn´t sound too good for the Spaniards now...

 

Yep Kai,
That was where the idea of staggered broadsides came in.

Regards,
Gordon