was repaired and set sail in mid-October with 1,300 men on board, including de Leyva. Lough Foyle was cleared, but then a gale struck and Girona was driven ashore at Dunluce in modern County Antrim. There were nine survivors, who were sent on to Scotland by Sorley Boy MacDonnell; 260 bodies were washed ashore. Aran Islands: Two ships were sighted off the Aran Islands: one failed to land a party in hard weather, and it is not known what became of them. Antrim: The single greatest loss of life occurred upon the wreck of the galleass Girona on the coast of Antrim after she had taken on board many survivors from other ships wrecked on the coast of Connacht (see Ulster, above). Aftermath Between 17 and 24 ships of the Grand Armada were lost on the Irish coast, accounting for about one-third of the fleet's total loss of 63, with the loss of about 6,000 men. By the end of September 1588 Fitzwilliam was able to report to the Queen's secretary, Lord Burghley, that the Armada alarm was over. Soon after, he reckoned that only about 100 survivors remained in the country. In 1596, an envoy of Philip II arrived in Ireland to make inquiries of survivors and was successful in only eight cases. Following the defeat of the Armada the English sent their own fleet against the Iberian peninsula, but failed to press home their advantage and returned with tremendous losses. At the height of the Anglo-Spanish War the Spanish landed 3,500 troops in the south of Ireland to assist the Ulster rebel leader Hugh O'Neill, during the Nine Years' War (1594–1603). This expedition also failed, and Spain and England concluded a peace in 1604. By the time of the peace the Spanish had restored their dominance at sea, and treasure from the New World was flowing in to their Royal Treasury at an increased rate. Elizabeth's successor James I neglected his fleet and chose to secure crown influence in Ireland: in 1607 the lords of Gaelic Ulster fled to the continent, and the English conquest of Ireland was largely completed on the seizure and colonisation of their territories in the Plantation of Ulster in 1610. There is a myth that the Spanish Armada left descendents in Ireland, however research has discredited such claims. Salvage The first salvage attempts were made within months, on the coast of County Clare