It was not, whatever Francis Drake sometimes darkly suspected, a matter of treachery, of a gullible sovereign and deceitful councillors. It was not even want of money, or reluctance to spend it. It was simply lack of the facilities and organization to provide very large quantities of food and drink fit to be kept for months aboard ship. The naval effort of 1588 was as unprecedented in England as it was in Spain, and the English had less experience than the Spanish in provisioning large expeditions. To keep a great fleet supplied with rations for two or three months ahead, when its crews go on eating up what you send them, requires an organization not to be improvised on the spur of the moment.

Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish A…, loc. 580