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"Then why not stand off and blast her into submission?"
"Not wise to fire our guns and run the risk of sinking her with all her loot" Drake clapped a hand on Cuttill's shoulder "Not to fear, Thomas If I schelishht"
Cuttill nodded in understanding "You rapple and board her then?"
Drake nodded "We'll be on her decks before her crew can pri into a trap of their own "
Slightly after three in the afternoon, the Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion caed toward the Golden Hind's port quarter Torres climbed the ladder to his ship's forecastle and shouted across the water
"What ship are you?"
/>Nuuese pilot Drake had appropriated after capturing de Silva's ship off Brazil, replied in Spanish, "San Pedro de Paula out of Valparaiso" The name of a vessel Drake had seized three weeks earlier
Except for a fe members ere dressed as Spanish sailors, Drake had hidden the mass of his men below decks and armed them with protective coats of mail and an arsenal of pikes, pistols,hooks attached to stout ropes were stowed along the bulwarks on the top deck Crossboere secretly stationed in the fighting tops above the mainyards of the masts
Drake forbade firearnite the sails into sheets of flaive the bowmen an unobscured line of vision Only then did he relax and patiently wait for the hty-eight against the Spanish crew of nearly two hundred bothered him not at all It was not the first tinore superior odds His renowned fight against the Spanish Arlish Channel was yet to come
From his view, de Anton saw no unusual activity on the decks of the seeoing about their duties without undue curiosity toward the Concepcion The captain, he observed, leaned casually against the railing of the quarterdeck and saluted de Anton The newcoled closer to the big treasure galleon
When the gap between the two ships had narrowed to 30 ave an almost imperceptible nod, and his ship's finest sharpshooter, who lay concealed on the gun deck, fired his musket and struck the Concepcion's steers tops began picking off the Spaniardscontrol of its steerageway, Drake ordered his helh sloping hull
As the ships crushed together and their bearoaned in protest, Drake roared out,
"Win her for good Queen Bess and England, my boys!"
Grappling hooks soared across the railings, clattered and caught on the Concepcion's bulwarks and rigging, binding the two vessels together in a death grip Drake's crew poured onto the galleon's deck, screa like banshees His bands away on trumpets Musket balls and arrows showered the dumbfounded Spanish crew as they stood frozen in shock
It was over alleon's crew fell dead or wounded without firing a shot in their defense Stunned by confusion and fear they dropped to their knees in submission as Drake's crew of boarders brushed theed below decks