Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake (c. 1540 – January 28, 1596) was an English privateer, navigator, naval hero, politician, and civil engineer of the Elizabethan period. He was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, from 1577 to 1580. In 1579, he landed in northern California, or possibly further north in Oregon or the Pacific Northwest (the exact location is still disputed by historians) and claimed the land as "Nova Albion" for the English Crown. Maps made soon after would have "Nova Albion" written above the entire northern frontier of New Spain.
Birth and early years
As with many of Drake's contemporaries, his exact date of birth is unknown and could be as early as 1535. The 1540 date is taken from a portrait painted quite late in his life. In the wake of his attack on Cádiz and his exploits in the Spanish Main (Caribbean), Drake earned the nickname El Draque ("The Dragon"), which is a direct translation of his surname. Francis Drake was born in Tavistock, Devon, the son of Protestant farmers. During the Roman Catholic uprising of 1549, the family was forced to flee to Kent. At about the age of 13 Francis took to the sea on a cargo bark, becoming master of the ship at the age of twenty. He spent his early career honing his sailing skills on the difficult waters of the North Sea, and eventually, after the death of the captain for whom he was sailing, becoming the master of his own bark. At age 23 Drake took his first voyages to the New World under the sails of the Hawkins family of Plymouth, in company with his cousin, Sir John Hawkins.
First adventures
Around 1563 Drake first sailed west to the Spanish Main, drawn by the immense wealth accruing from Spain's monopoly on New World silver. Drake took an immediate dislike to the Spanish, at least in part due to their mistrust of non-Spaniards and their Catholicism. His hostility is said to have been increased by the incident at San Juan de Ulloa in 1568, when Spanish forces executed a surprise attack in violation of a truce agreed to a few days before, nearly costing Drake his life. From then on, he devoted the rest of his life to working against the Spanish Empire: the Spanish considered him an outlaw pirate, but to England he was simply a sailor and privateer. On his second such voyage he fought a costly battle against Spanish forces, which claimed many English lives but earned Drake the favour of Queen Elizabeth.
The most celebrated of Drake's Caribbean adventures was his capture of the Spanish Silver Train at Nombre de Dios in March of 1573. With a crew including many French privateers and Cimaroons (African slaves who had escaped the Spanish), Drake raided the waters around Darien (in modern Panama) and tracked the Silver Train to the nearby port of Nombre de Dios. He made off with a fortune in gold, but had to leave behind another fortune in silver because it was too heavy to carry back to England. When Drake returned to Plymouth on August 9, 1573, a mere thirty Englishmen returned with him, but each survivor was rich for life. However, Queen Elizabeth, who had up to this point sponsored and encouraged Drake's raids, signed a temporary truce with King Philip II of Spain, and so was unable to officially acknowledge Drake's accomplishment. Such intrigues were typical during Drake's era.
Circumnavigation of the globe
In 1577, Drake was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth to undertake an expedition against the Spanish along the Pacific coast of the Americas. He set sail from Plymouth, England, in December aboard the Pelican, with four other ships and over 150 men. After crossing the Atlantic two of the ships had to be abandoned on the east coast of South America. The three remaining ships departed for the Strait of Magellan at the southern tip of the continent. A few weeks later they made it into the Pacific, however, violent storms destroyed one of the ships and caused another to turn back to England. Drake pushed on in his flagship, now renamed the Golden Hind in honour of Sir Christopher Hatton (after his coat of arms).
The final ship sailed northward along the Pacific coast of South America, attacking Spanish ports like Valparaíso as it went. He also captured Spanish ships on the journey north, making good use of their more accurate charts. On his search for the Northwest passage Drake may have made it as far as today's US-Canadian border. Unable to find the fabled passage back to the Atlantic he turned and headed southward. The Golden Hind entered an inlet (Drake's Bay) north of present-day San Francisco for repairs. Drake claimed this land for England, naming it New Albion.
When Drake set sail, they headed westward across the Pacific, and a few months later reached the Moluccas, a group of islands in the southwest pacific (east of today's Indonesia).
He made multiple stops on his way toward the tip of Africa, eventually rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived in England in September of 1580. He brought with him a rich cargo of spices and captured Spanish treasures, and was hailed as the first Englishman to circumnavigate the Earth. Later, Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth aboard the Golden Hind, and became the mayor of Plymouth and a member of Parliament.
The Queen ordered all written accounts of Drake's voyage considered top secret, and its participants sworn to silence on pain of death; her aim was to keep Drake's activities away from the eyes of rival Spain.
The Spanish Armada
Drake was vice admiral in command of the English fleet (under Lord Howard of Effingham) when they overcame the Spanish Armada that was attempting to invade England in 1588. Garett Mattingly would later give a fascinating account of this battle in his book "The defeat of the Spanish Armada", first published in 1959, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1960.
The most famous (but probably apocryphal) anecdote about Drake's life tells that, prior to the battle, he was playing a game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe. On being warned of the approach of the Spanish fleet, Drake is said to have remarked that there was plenty of time to finish the game and still beat the Spaniards.
Final years
Drake's seafaring career continued. In 1595 he unsuccessfully attacked San Juan, Puerto Rico. Gunners from El Morro Castle shot a cannonball through the cabin of Drake's flagship, but he survived. In 1596 he died of dysentery after again attacking San Juan, where some Spanish treasure ships had sought shelter. He was buried at sea in a lead coffin.
Drake in popular culture
There is a popular legend which recounts that if England is ever in peril, if Sir Francis Drake's drum is beaten, he will return to save the country in time of peril.
Drake's exploits were extolled by the patriotic Victorian poet Sir Henry Newbolt in the poem Drake's Drum. A similarly named poem was also written by the late Victorian poetess Norah M. Holland.
External links
- Oliver seeler's website "Sir Francis Drake" (http://www.mcn.org/2/oseeler/drake.htm)
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