The grand total of those embarked was about 30,000.

The daily expense of the fleet was estimated by Don Diego de Pimentel at 12,000 ducats a-day, and the daily cost of the combined naval and military force under Farnese and Medina Sidonia was stated at 30,000 ducats.
The size of the ships ranged from 1200 tons to 300.

The galleons, of which there were about sixty, were huge round-stemmed clumsy vessels, with bulwarks three or four feet thick, and built up at stem and stern, like castles.

The galeasses of which there were four--were a third larger than the ordinary galley, and were rowed each by three hundred galley-slaves.

They consisted of an enormous towering fortress at the stern; a castellated structure almost equally massive in front, with seats for the rowers amidships.