The failed invasion of Tudor England by the Philip II's Great Armada left shipwrecks all over the Northern Atlantic. The Spanish empire depended on its fleet to bring home profitable colonial goods from the New World, such as whale oil for lamps, as a whole annual squadron sunk near Newfoundland, of which a Basque galleon was found well-preserved. piracy Canada. No less dangerous then storms was piracy, especially the chartered privateers of Elisabeth I which contributed to the rise of rival maritime powers in Europe: the English (later British, ultimately the new ruler of the seas), the Dutch and French. They developed superior techniques in ship building and sea battle starring canons, instead of the outdated 'floating land war' from stern-mounted 'castles', a major factor in the Spanish defeat. The sunk flagship of Henry VIII's invasion fleet for northern France, the Mary Rose, testifies to this painstaking but successful development. After the fast mobbing, loading and shooting English won the first battle against the incoming Spanish fleet, the remainder meant to pick up infantry near Calais was attacked again and fell prey to storms, disseminating or sinking the galleons widely, such as the Trinidad Valencera, a converted Venice-built merchant ship, cracked on an Irish cliff, whose crew were slaughtered by English troops on the coast.
—KGF Vissers