Compiled for broadcasting by Colin Clair from contemporary documents
Music chosen and arranged by Maurice Brown
Production by Val Gielgud
Most of us owe our impression of the heroic Sir Richard Grenville entirely to Tennyson's stirring ' ballad of the fleet', ' The Revenge '. Tennyson may not have been very accurate in his facts ; of his ' fifty-three ' Spanish ships only twenty or so were men-o'-war ; but he in no way exaggerates the grandeur of the Revenge's last fight. The cold voice of history may insist that Grenville was trapped, not through solicitude for his ' ninety men and more that are lying sick ashore ', but by his own obstinate temper, bad seamanship, and disobedience to his commanding officer. But heroism covers a multitude of faults, and Grenville and his men have a secure place in the pantheon of British naval history.