Pinned post for Q&A :)

"Almost everyone in the entirety of Europe know what the Spanish plan were"
They won't expect the Spanish Inquisition, but they totally expect the Spanish Armada

The Spanish worked on the time-honored principle that the enemy cannot possibly guess what we are planning, if we have no idea what our plan is.

“Color printer ink”

The information you and your guests provide is wonderful. And the bits of humor you toss in is really the icing on the cake.

Thanks from the land of BB-55.

The steady reveal of the names of ships that would be first in their storied lines was rather stirring. Dreadnought! Ark Royal! Revenge! Victory!   Legends not yet made. It's downright mythic.

Sounds like Medina Sedonia was brilliant. The man understood his own strengths, weaknesses, logistics and communications. Like, wow.

Ah, the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, fantastic organizer and possessed of the most bruised countenance in naval history, on account of smacking his head against the wall in frustration over having to satisfy Phillip II.

Runner: Sir, the beacons are lit! Gondor calls for aid!
Queen: What? Who?
Messenger: I mean,the Spanish are coming!

As far as I know, the attack in Cadiz had strong repercussions on the long-term supply quality: beyond destroying existing supplies, it also destroyed good-quality water/supply barrels, forcing the Spanish to build new barrels, with younger wood, therefore of lesser quality and more prone to lead to supplies perishing (even while still in port in 1588 as said by Drachnifel). So as with the ships, and contrary to the supplies themselves, the barrels couldn't be entirely replaced.

40:25
Royal Navy: HALP PLS SEND SHIPS
Private interests: OK how many
Royal Navy: ALL OF THEM
Private interests: wait, srsly
Royal Navy: YES

Hey Drach, I met you on Battleship North Carolina (I gave you the photo album of my Grand Dads time on a sub tender in WW2). I just wanted to let you know I have watched your videos for a number of years and your ability to tell these stories  has absolutely reached its new highest level with this video. I was never really that interested in the age of sail history I’m more about steam and steel. But this recounting had me glued to my screen. Thank you and Excellent work!

My school is over 500 years old and the school houses are, Hawkins, Drake, Howard, Frobisher, Grenville and Raleigh and in the great hall where we ate lunch, they have huge stained glass windows along the side of the hall with each of them doing famous things they did, so Drake is bowling etc. And then at end is a central stained glass window of Elizabeth 1st and her court, it's very impressive and looks quite like the dinning hall in Harry potter. We also had different ties for each house, with different coloured stripes gold and red for Hawkins, Drakes was green and red etc. You wore those when you were in Junior school and high school and didn't wear them when you were in 6th form though.

It's interesting to see the difficulty with which the Armada sailed from Spain into the Channel. I think we forget in the modern age how dependent on nature   sailing ships were. It was time consuming and difficult to get a ship out of port and off on a voyage if the winds and weather were contrary.

His actions as Commander of the Armada hid the identity of Medina-Sidona, here unmasked as the bane of naval junior officers for centuries to come, the inventor of the pre-printed form. "The Navy floats on a sea of paper"

"spinal nova cannon" is about the best description of a ship mounted colossal bombard i can think of. id have reworked the fore castle to make it a bowchaser personally

Years ago I was with some friends in London and we were at the Golden Hinde pub, next to the Golden Hind replica. I was amazed at how tiny the ship was! And this was a warship? Incredible!

The beacons are lit.

What is that, Gondor calling for aide?

No, just the Armada arriving off  England's coast.

The Spanish Armada set sail confidently in expectation of a miracle. Or to somewhat quote Captain Kirk "They had England exactly where it wanted them."

Algorithm support comment

The death of Álvaro de Bazán y Guzmán, 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz in 02/1588 was really a game-changer. The english wikipedia says that the health of Santa Cruz suffered under the accusations by the king for the chaos & desaster in 1587. To give the followers of Drach an impression for warfare at sea in this era, Santa Cruz defeated a French-Portuguese fleet at the Battle of Ponta Delgada (Azores) in 1582. This sea-battle was the first one in history which was led only by artillery far away from home-waters in the Atlantic. For the English another fact was important. They standardised the gun calibre, which allowed more rapid firing of broadsides. And they abondoned the breech-loaders which were used on the Mary Rose.