[a. Sp. flota fleet]
1. The name given to the Spanish fleet which used to cross the Atlantic and bring back to Spain the products of America and the West Indies. Also gen.
1690. Sir J. Child, Disc. Trade, Preface, B. iv b. A great part of the Plate Trade from Cadiz is lost to the Dutch, who by reason of the lowness of their Interest, can afford to let their Stocks lie beforehand at Seville and Cadiz, against the arrival of the Spanish Flota.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Elegies, xiv.
| While GREENVILLE’s breast cou’d virtue’s stores afford, | |
| What envy’d flota bore so fair a freight? | |
| The mine compared in vain its latent hoard, | |
| The gem its lustre, and the gold its weight. |
1796. Nelson, 28 Sept., in Nicolas, Disp., II. 284. If I can find them on that coast, I believe (having knowledge of the whole Coast,) I can destroy their flota.
¶ 2. ? erroneous use. A floating barrier (see quot.).
1777. Watson, Philip II., II. XIX. 180. For the greater security of this part of the work, a flota one thousand two hundred feet long was constructed of barks, bound together in the same manner as the ships of which the bridge was formed, with the same sort of beams pointed with iron, resembling a file of pikes, stretching from that end of the barks which lay next to the enemy.
