The council
could do nothing, and Lord Howard's letters prove that the queen,
and she only, was responsible for the miserable state of things
that prevailed.
At last, in May, Lord Howard sailed with the fleet down Channel,
leaving Lord Henry Seymour with three men of war and a squadron of
privateers to watch Dunkirk. At Plymouth the admiral found Drake with
forty ships, all except one raised and sent to sea at the expense
of himself and the gentry and merchants of the west counties. The
weather was wild, as it had been all the winter. Howard with the
great ships lay at anchor in the Sound, rolling heavily, while the
smaller craft went for shelter into the mouth of the river. There
were but eighteen days' provisions on board; fresh supplies promised
did not arrive, and the crews were put on half rations, and eked
these out by catching fish. At last, when the supplies were just
exhausted, the victualling ships arrived, with one month's fresh
rations, and a message that no more would be sent. So villainous
was the quality of the stores that fever broke out in the fleet.
It was not until the end of the month that Elizabeth would even
permit any further preparations to be made, and the supplies took
some time collecting. The crews would have been starved had not
the officers so divided the rations as to make them last six weeks.
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