Entirely without suspicion as the Spaniards were,
and rendered confident by their own overwhelming strength, it is
unlikely that they used a vigilance keener than their careless habit.
Certain it is that they did not sight Blood's fleet in that dim light
until some time after Blood's fleet had sighted them. By the time
that they had actively roused themselves, Wolverstone's sloop was
almost upon them, speeding under canvas which had been crowded to
her yards the moment the galleons had loomed into view.
Straight for the Admiral's great ship, the Encarnacion, did
Wolverstone head the sloop; then, lashing down the helm, he kindled
from a match that hung ready lighted beside him a great torch of
thickly plaited straw that had been steeped in bitumen. First it
glowed, then as he swung it round his head, it burst into flame,
just as the slight vessel went crashing and bumping and scraping
against the side of the flagship, whilst rigging became tangled
with rigging, to the straining of yards and snapping of spars
overhead. His six men stood at their posts on the larboard side,
stark naked, each armed with a grapnel, four of them on the gunwale,
two of them aloft.
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