An English fleet under Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norris effected a landing near Lisbon in support of António in 1589, but the expedition proved a costly failure.
After a fierce battle in the harbour, Adm. Horatio Nelson, ignoring orders to withdraw from the fleet commander, Sir Hyde Parker, instead continued to destroy most of the Danish fleet.
In 1718, war once again broke out and experienced officers were immediately given sea postings, Balchen in the 80-gun HMS Shrewsbury in the fleet of Sir George Byng.
In 1804 he moved from Utrecht to the 74-gun HMS Triumph and in February 1805 was attached to the fleet under Sir Robert Calder stationed off Cape Finisterre during the Trafalgar campaign.
An English fleet under Sir Robert Mansell intercepted and attacked six Spanish galleys under the command of Federico Spinola; in the Dover Straits and was fought all the way off from the coast of England and finally off the Spanish Netherlands.
In mobilizing his forces against the Armada, Howard, on the flagship Ark, led the main body of the fleet to join Sir Francis Drake's advance force off the southwest coast of England (May 1588).
In the beginning of September, he defeated a British fleet led by Sir Thomas Graves that came to relieve Cornwallis at the Battle of the Chesapeake.
He split off part of his fleet, leaving Admiral Sir John Leake with 18 ships to patrol the strait and the Portuguese coast.
The Scilly naval disaster of 1707, in which a fleet commanded by Sir Cloudesley Shovell foundered, highlighted mismanagement at the Admiralty, for which George was nominally responsible.
Nelson commented that he had "never beheld a fleet equal to Sir John Jervis'" Having had great difficulty supplying the fleet with fresh water the Admiral arranged for large tanks to be built in Gibraltar.
