Sir Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake, born around 1540, was a famous privateer and explorer from Devon, England. His early life was spent aboard merchant ships where he gained a significant amount of seafaring experience. Queen Elizabeth first noticed his prowess as a sailor during his excursions to the West Indies. He brought back with him an impressive amount of Spanish treasures throughout the 1570’s. In 1577, Elizabeth wanted to set out an expedition around the world, the first that the English had done. She hired Francis Drake as the leader of this voyage. The ship The Pelican was commissioned for this trip, along with 73 crew members, two supply ships and his friend Thomas Doughty. They were scheduled to set sail on the 15th of November from Plymouth, but bad weather interrupted their journey and they were forced to land in Falmouth, Cornwall. After the fleet underwent repairs, they started their voyage again on the 13th of December, this time with six ships and 164 men.
The trip across the Atlantic was not the easiest. Two of the boats, The Christopher and The Swan, were abandoned once their crew’s numbers died off. As the fleet reached Argentina, another boat, The Mary, was found to be nearly unusable, so it was left behind. The growing difficulties angered the crew and Thomas Doughty enough so that he staged a mutiny. The strong-willed Drake immediately arrested Doughty and sent him to South America. He was beheaded soon after, and Drake’s voyage continued.
Following the trip through the Straits of Magellan, the fleet arrived at the Pacific Ocean in September, 1578. Two more ships became casualty to bad weather and Drake’s main ship, The Pelican, was the only one that remained. Drake renamed his ship The Golden Hind and continued up the length of western South America, attacking Spanish ports along the way. Two of his largest conquests were made against a Spanish ship near Peru, and another vessel called the Nuestra Senora de la Conception. The taking of these led to Drake having to store almost 500,000 British pounds worth of treasure.
Drake and his ship travelled up as far as present-day California. Eventually, he found an area that would be suitable for him to restock and repair his vessel. He named this area Nova Albion, which is Latin for “New Britain”. He kept the exact location of this colony a secret so that it would not be invaded by the Spaniards, and to this day its exact location is not known. There his chaplain conducted the very first Protestant sermon in The New World.
In the autumn of 1579, The Golden Hind set sail again, this time across the Pacific. When it reached the islands that are now known as Indonesia, it got caught in a coral reef. With the abandonment of some cargo, the ship was set free and made its way to the East African Coast. Drake and his crew made many stops in Africa and travelled around the Cape of Good Hope up past Sierra Leone. The Golden Hind arrived in Plymouth in the summer of 1580, delivering to Queen Elizabeth wealth that exceeded her regular yearly income. The success of the trip led the Queen to knight Sir Francis Drake on April 4, 1581.
