| Summary: | When King Philip of Spain's Great Armada of 1588 was first sighted off the Lizard in Cornwall, at dawn on 30 July, the fire beacons immediately flashed their warning along the coast. In the South Hams the beacon light passed in a chain through Thurlestone, Bolbery Dolts at Malborough, then across the estuary to South Pool, Chivelstone and Start Point. Their warning was then passed on to London via Dartmouth, Dittisham and Torbay. In the fading light of the following evening, the local people gathered on the three great headlands near the mouth of the Estuary – Bolt Head, Prawle Point and Start Point – witnessed a spectacle of unsurpassed magnitude as ‘the greatest navy that ever swam the sea’ sailed by in slow procession.7 One hundred and twenty-five Spanish galleons and galleasses (powered by sail and oar) were to be seen spread over seven miles of sea in a mighty crescent formation. |
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