own ship, nor was the work executed with quite that automatic
precision and astonishing speed that is characteristic of the Navy of
the present day, yet the work went forward so smoothly and rapidly that
within ten minutes of the delivery of George's first order the _Nonsuch_
was under way and turning to windward in pursuit of the plate ships that
were cumbrously attempting to effect their escape from the harbour.

Within the next five minutes it became evident that the Spanish sailors
were no match for the English, nor the Spanish ships for the _Nonsuch_;
for although the former had secured a pretty good start of the latter,
they had slipped their cables with only just enough canvas set to give
them steerage way and enable them to avoid colliding with other ships,
slowly increasing their spread of canvas as they went, whereas the
_Nonsuch_ hung on to her anchor until practically the whole of her
working canvas was set, wherefore no sooner had the ponderous hempen
cable gone smoking out through her hawse pipe than she came under
command, when her extraordinary speed at once told, and she began to
rapidly overhaul the ships of which she was in chase. But it was
nervous work threading her way out of that crowded anchorage in the
intense darkness, for there were fully fifty sail in the port, apart
from the plate ships, and for some unknown reason--but probably in
accordance with orders received--not one was showing a light,
consequently there were several occasions when a collision was avoided
only by the remarkable working qualities of the ship herself and the
instantaneous response of the mariners to the orders issued from time to
time from the quarter-deck.

To avoid collision with a craft lying passively at anchor was, under the
circumstances, quite sufficiently difficult, but it was infinitely worse
when it came to steering clear of the plate ships beating out of the
harbour; and indeed something more than a mere suspicion soon took
possession of the minds of the English that a deliberate attempt was
being made by the Spaniards to either run them down or disable them, for
whenever, in the course of manoeuvring, they drew near a Spanish ship,
the latter seemed to alter her course and come blundering headlong at
them, when, if a collision had chanced to have occurred, the English
ship must of necessity have been the greatest sufferer, because of her
inferior size. But here again the nimbleness of the _Nonsuch_ and th