The Spaniards had achieved a kind of tactical surprise. [fact]
The Spaniards had achieved a kind of tactical surprise. It would be possible to say that for the moment they had the advantage of time and place which should be half the victory. They had the weather-gauge and their enemy was trapped in harbour to leeward. But it would be easy to exaggerate the completeness of the surprise.
Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish A…, loc. 599