The Battle of the Narrow Seas, also known as the Battle of the Goodwin Sands or Battle of the Dover Straits was a naval engagement that took place on 3–4 October 1602 during the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585 and part of the Dutch Revolt. An English fleet under Sir Robert Mansell intercepted and attacked six Spanish galleys under the command of Federico Spinola in the Dover Straits. The battle was fought initially off the coast of England and finally off the Spanish Netherlands. The English were soon joined by a Dutch fleet under Jan Adriaanszoon Cant, and they completed the destruction.^[4][5]

Quick Facts Date, Location ...

Battle of the Narrow Seas
Part of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585) & the Eighty Years' War
The Battle in the Strait Between Calais and Dover on 3 and 4 October 1602 Between the Spanish Galleys of Federico Spinola and Dutch and English Warships Painting by Andries van Eertvelt
Date 3–4 October 1602 Location Strait of Dover in the English Channel 51°00′N 1°27′E Result Anglo-Dutch victory[1][2]
Belligerents
Spain	England United Provinces
Commanders and leaders
Federico Spinola	Robert Mansell Jan Adriaanszoon Cant
Strength
6 galleys 1,600 troops, 600 sailors, 1,000 galley slaves	9 galleons, carracks, & galiots
Casualties and losses
2 galleys sunk, 1 galley burnt, crew interned 2,000 killed, wounded, or captured[3]	Light

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In 1602 Frederico Spinola, younger brother of Ambrogio Spinola, had distinguished himself greatly as a soldier in the Army of Flanders and had succeeded in 1599 going through the English Channel and passing the straits of Dover unmolested; this led to a panic called the invisible armada, as it encouraged suspicions that the attempt might be renewed and on a larger scale.^[6] Buoyed by this achievement, he had indulged Philip III of Spain, the Duke of Lerma and Martín de Padilla, in a vision of a massive galley-borne invasion of England from Flanders. However, the council brought him down to a mere eight galleys, provided at Spinola's expense.^[1] He was on his way from San Lucar to Lisbon but he was defeated by Sir Richard Leveson at Sesimbra Bay, which cost him two galleys.^[7]

After this defeat Spinola took his remaining six galleys back to Lisbon and filled his vessels with pay chests for Flanders. During the sailing to Flanders he captured an English merchant ship, which he left at A Coruña.^[8] At Santander he took on a further 400 troops to complete the tercio complement of 1,600 men. In England word had spread that Spinola was on his way in an attempt to run the English Channel again. The heading of the six galleys was for Sluis. Robert Cecil was well informed of their approach, even already when they arrived at Blavet, in Brittany, at the beginning of October.^{[9][10]: 386–387} Queen Elizabeth decided to act, so she appointed Sir Robert Mansell to join with a States fleet before Dunkirk and Sluis, to see what they could do to impede them.^[11] Meanwhile, the States of Holland and West Frisia had sent a flotilla of nine ships under Vice-Admiral Jacob van Duyvenvoorde to intercept Spinola, but when this force arrived near Spain, Spinola had already escaped to the north. Van Duyvenvoorde, coping with an outbreak of smallpox by which he was himself afflicted, sent four of his ships back north under Jan Adriaanszoon Cant, known by the English as Jan van Cant.^[12]

Mansell, with three ships (the 30-gun Hope along with the 42-gun Victory and the Answer), departed and patrolled about Dungeness. Mansell's flag captain came up with the strategy on how to tackle Spinola; he predicted that Spinola would try to sail close to the English coast. Acting on this hunch, Mansell set each ship a good distance from the next using flyboats so that a good communication system was erected between themselves and the Dutch fleet off the Flemish coast under acting Vice-Admiral Jan Cant.^[7] On the 3rd, Mansell was soon joined by two Dutch flyboats, Samson and the Moon to improve communication, and now Spinola was effectively sailing into a trap.^[10]: 388

Casualties were exceptionally heavy for the Spanish; as two galleys sank with all hands, with perhaps over 2,000 killed, wounded, or captured. At Calais the wrecked galley was chopped up and used as firewood by the French, the Spanish crew were interned and the galley slaves freed.^[9] Casualties for the Dutch and English were light with some ships suffering no casualties at all. Two Dutch ships were damaged in the ramming that took place but the rest of the Dutch ships suffered only minor damage.^[3] The English ships suffered no damage at all except for a broken mast on Samson due to the gale.^[3] The battle clearly showed the difference between galleons and galleys, in particular the uselessness of a Mediterranean-type galley in northern waters.^[14] The transition in warfare, along with the introduction of much cheaper cast iron guns in the 1580s, proved the "death knell" for the war galley as a significant military vessel.^{[10]: 395 [16]}

Mansell was rewarded for his part in the victory and was named Vice-Admiral of the Narrow Seas in commemoration of the name of the battle.^[4] Van Duyvenvoorde and Cant both received honorary golden chains from the States of Holland. As for Spinola, he managed to save half of the galleys, as the two which had reached Nieuwpoort were soon able to join San Luis in Dunkirk.^[13][17] From there, the three ships sailed unmolested to Sluis, where Spinola with his five galleys still represented a threat to the English and Dutch shipping.^[8][13] Both the English and the Dutch were gradually able to gain supremacy in the seas not just in and around the English Channel but in all the European waters.^[1] As a result, Spinola would be defeated again and mortally wounded at the Battle of Sluis by the blockading Dutch forces in an attempt to escape.^{[7][10]: 395} Spinola's death and the subsequent surrender of Sluis to the Dutch in 1604 ended his and Philip III's dreams, and English fears, of a galley-borne invasion of England from Flanders.^[1]

• Battle of Sesimbra Bay
• Battle of Sluis (1603)