July for valour by Lord Howard aboard his flagship Ark Royal, alongside Sheffield, Thomas Howard, and Hawkins. Two days later the English launched eight fire ships into the midst of the Armada at its moorings, forcing its captains to cut their anchors; the decisive action was fought 29 July on the shoals off Gravelines, where Frobisher, Drake, and Hawkins pounded the Spanish ships with their guns. Drake's squadron gave Medina Sidonia's flagship, San Martin, a single broadside and moved on; Frobisher, directly behind him in the English line, stayed with the San Martin at close range and poured cannon shot into her oaken flanks, but failed to take her. Five Spanish ships were lost. Following this defeat of the Spanish fleet, the Revenge was engaged in harassing Spanish shipping and it was Frobisher's flagship in 1590 when he commanded the efforts to intercept Spanish treasure galleons. Later life In 1590, Frobisher visited his native Altofts and found himself welcomed in the homes of the peers and landed gentry of Yorkshire county as an honoured guest. He paid particular attention to a daughter of Thomas, 1st Baron Wentworth, Dorothy Wentworth, 3 January 1601), recently widowed by the death of her husband, Paul Withypool of Ipswich; sometime before October she became Frobisher's second wife. In November 1591, he purchased from the Queen the leasehold of the manor of Whitwood in Yorkshire for an unstated sum, and of Finningley Grange in Nottinghamshire, which had belonged to the Mattersey Priory, for £949. Frobisher made Whitwood his chief residence, befitting his new status as a landed proprietor, but found little leisure for country life. The following year Frobisher took charge of an English fleet sent out to blockade the Spanish coast and rendezvous with the Spanish treasure fleet; it was fitted out by investors including the Queen, the Earl of Cumberland, Sir Walter Raleigh and his brother, and John Hawkins. Raleigh and Cumberland were the principal organizers of the expedition, and on 28 February Raleigh was commissioned to lead it; the Queen, however, was not eager to send her current favourite off to sea, and he, no great lover of sea life and with no experience in the command of fleets, recommended Frobisher take his place. The fleet was divided into two divisions, with Frobisher's squadron patrolling the waters off the coast of Portugal near the Burlings, while Sir John Burgh (Borough) and John Norton's