An additional handicap for the English was the taller air draught of the Castilian ships, which enabled their crews to built wooden breastworks and throw arrows and bolts from a higher position. The Castilian vessels were equipped with arbalests that loosed quarrels on the wooden decks of the English ships. When the fight resumed on the morning of the 22nd, the Castilians managed to set fire to some of them by spraying oil on their decks and rigging and then igniting it with flaming arrows. Many of the English were killed or burned alive, while other surrendered, among them Pembroke. The Spanish naval historian Cesáreo Fernández Duro claims that the English prisoners amounted to 400 knights and 8,000 soldiers, without counting the slain. Estimates in English chronicles speak of about 1,500 casualties, 800 deaths and between 160 and 400 prisoners. The whole fleet was destroyed or captured and £12,000 fell into Castilian hands. The English defeat appeared inevitable from the beginning because of the major inequality in strength. Aftermath The battle of La Rochelle was the first important English naval defeat of the Hundred Years' War; furthermore, It was described by historian J. H. Ramsay as the worst defeat ever inflicted on the English navy, Its effect upon the course of the war was significant: La Rochelle was lost on 7 September. Its capture was followed during the second half of the year by nearly all of Poitou, Angoumois and Saintonge, which Bertrand du Guesclin cleared of English garrisons. Some authors claim that the battle cost England its naval supremacy along the French coast but others disagree, though asserting that England's naval policy had become misguided. The projected resources to support John of Gaunt's claims to the Castilian throne were largely suspended, while a great expedition under Edward III himself had to be postponed because of contrary winds. The English needed a year to rebuild their fleet through the efforts of fourteen towns. In April 1373 a powerful force under William de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, set sail for Portugal. It was commanded by Admirals Neville and Courtenay in two divisions, the first consisting of 15 ships and 9 barges and the second, 12 ships and 9 barges, 44 fighting vessels all told. Other ships and barges joined the large concentration and by July, Salisbury had 56 ships crewed by 2,500 sailors and an army of 2,600 soldiers. This campaign