The Crown instead of controlling and taxing its subjects, competed with them for private profit, a race it failed to win, as the great naval expeditions were on the whole unprofitable. The last of the great English naval expeditions took place in 1597, led by the Earl of Essex known as the Islands Voyage. The objective was to destroy the Spanish fleet and intercept a treasure fleet in the Azores. Neither was achieved and the expedition ended in failure, and Essex on his return was scolded by the Queen for not protecting the English coast.