[5] War had already been declared by Philip II of Spain after the Treaty of Nonsuch in which Elizabeth I had offered her support to the Protestant Dutch rebels.

In August the 160-ton English ship Tiger or Tyger of twenty two guns (which had been converted into a galleass) under Grenville began her voyage back to England from the 1585 Roanoke Expedition.

[7] At near 400 tons Santa Maria de San Vicente was a richly-laden galleon having sailed from Havana with nearly 300 crew, soldiers, and passengers.

[9] Grenville soon realised that the size of the Santa Maria de San Vicente was much larger (200 tons bigger) than his own ship.

Cannon fire from the Tiger soon found their target and sent shot firstly into the rigging of Santa Maria de San Vicente.

For three days the Santa Maria managed to put up with incessant attacks from Tiger but was unable to reply effectively as her guns were falling well short of the English vessel.

[11] Pedro Diaz, a pilot of the Santa Maria de San Vicente', was kept as a prisoner by the English, who brought him along on the 1586 Roanoke Voyage, of which he kept a detailed journal which proved useful in knowledge of that expedition.