so that they could not be surrounded and then ordered the ships ready for action. The sakers, culverins, and demi culverins would show how well they fared since in ship-to-ship combat they had yet to be tested at sea in English service. The Spanish admiral Don Pedro de Leyva closed in but did not attack instead sending a messenger aboard the Merchant Royal; they asked what they were doing and where they had come from. The English explained that trade had bought them to Turkey and were returning home to England. De Leyva then demanded to acknowledge their duty and obedience to the Spanish king but this was flatly refused by Wilkinson. After more demands were refused De Leyva then sent an ultimatum they would, 'either be sunk or be escorted into port' but he was rebuffed once more and the two fleets prepared for battle. Battle The admiral's galley fired the first shot which was responded by a culverin from the Merchant Royal and the action began. Each English ship matched itself with two Spanish galleys and fighting became bitter, the Spanish attempted to board which was the galleys principal military function. The English however kept up a steady rate of fire from their recently applied twenty pounder culverins (of which there were four in each ship) and twelve pounder demi-culverins (ten in each ship) as well as short-range perriers which had an effect in terms of accuracy and long-range damage infliction. The Spanish and Maltese galleys could not get in close enough range of the English ships to use their big fifty pounder guns, mounted in the waist line without being seriously damaged. One galley did get in close enough to bravely fire off two shots which caused the only English casualties; in the Susan before being forced off by her guns. William and John was very nearly a casualty after briefly touching the bottom in the shallows as they were hugging the shoreline but the wind was strong enough to carry it forward to safety. Soon de Leyva realized the attack was producing far more harm to his galleys and frigates and hardly any on the English. Even de Leyva's flag galley had sustained heavy damage and soon it warped from the fight, and after a few hours more fighting the rest of the Spanish ships had repeated the same feat. Most of them had sustained some