That crippled monster, seeing the English line bearing down, scrambled desperately towards the shelter of Calais Harbour. A fast-ebbing tide, a heavy surf, no rudder and no knowledge of the contour of the beach, made escape unlikely, and at the last moment the straining exertions of the galley slaves tugging at the great sweeps only drove the galleass that much more firmly aground. There she lay, quickly heeling over more and more towards her beam ends as the water ebbed from beneath her, her deck canting inshore and her port batteries pointing foolishly skyward, stuck fast under the walls of Calais Castle.

Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish A…, loc. 740