Sir Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake (about 1540-1596), was a famous explorer and politician from Devon, England. Around the age of thirteen, he was assigned to the crew of a freighter that travelled from the mouth of the Thames to various coastal ports. At the age of 20, he was given command of the freighter and his life as a skilled seaman began. He was an integral contributor to the British knowledge of world geography and made many voyages to the Americas. His most famous long-term voyages are described below.
Drake’s first voyages to The New World
At the age of 23, Francis Drake had decided to join the group of seafarers who were collecting riches from the West Indies. His first voyage was with his second cousin John Hawkins on a fleet of ships that were borrowed from Hawkins’ relatives. Although his voyages to The Americas were largely uneventful, there was one pivotal moment in Drake’s sailing career. In 1567, Drake, Hawkins and their fleet of ships were sailing from the Caribbean to the Gulf of Mexico when a group of Spanish ships attacked them. Drake’s boats were completely overtaken and he, Hawkins and a few sailors were left with nothing but their lives. As a result, Francis Drake decided to make it a long-standing goal of his to get revenge from the Spanish.
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Drake the Privateer
Queen Elizabeth eventually got wind of Francis Drake and hired him to lead a fleet of two ships on a voyage to America. Along with 73 sailors and his second cousin John Hawkins, the voyage lasted 25 days with the ships landing in Nombre del Dios, which is present day Nicaragua. There he and his crew plundered a Spanish caravan and scored a significant amount of gold and treasures. This voyage brought Frances Drake the notoriety that made him one of the most celebrated English Explorers.
Drake’s Trip Around the World
In the mid 1570’s, Queen Elizabeth planned to commission a fleet of ships to circumnavigate the world Drake’s plans were to travel through the Straits of Magellan and then through the islands of the Pacific, and then back to England around the western side of Africa. In 1577, Drake took three ships and the Queen’s courtesan Thomas Doughty across the Atlantic Ocean. The crew encountered bad sailing conditions, and Doughty managed to get many members to mutiny with him. Drake wouldn’t have any of it, and had Doughty beheaded in South America. With the elimination of Doughty from his trip, he renamed his ship from The Pelican to The Golden Hind. Luckily Drake’s exploring ships were unrecognizable to the Spanish Navy as it sailed up the coast of South America, so Drake was able to attack many Spanish ships along the way. One, the Nuestra Senora de la Conception, surrendered to Drake and left him with almost 500,000 pounds of plunder.
Drake then sailed up to the now San Francisco area and formed New Albion. He travelled across the Pacific and acrose the Cape of Good Hope. In 1580, Drake returned to England with enough treasures to weigh down his ship significantly. Queen Elizabeth was so pleased by his excursion that she had Francis Drake knighted aboard The Golden Hind in 1581.
