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inherited strong Protestant convictions from his father, Drake
thenceforward combined them with a passionate desire for revenge on the
Spaniards for what he regarded as their treachery on this occasion.
The next few years were spent in privateering
raids on the Spanish Main, of which many romantic stories are told,
particularly about his attack on Nombre
de Dios in 1572, his interception of the mule trains transporting
silver across the Isthmus of Panama,
and his first sight of the Pacific, when he prayed that he might be the
first 'to sail an English ship in those seas'.
His opportunity came in 1577 when he was engaged
by a syndicate by Elizabeth to make the first circumnavigation of the
world by an Englishman. Many details of his famous voyage are obscure
because they were suppressed at the time for reasons of state, since much
of the voyage was to be through seas claimed exclusively by Spain. We do
not know if any official commission was ever issued, or if Drake himself
kept a log. One declared object of the voyage was to discover the
legendary continent of Terra Australis Incognita, another to return
through the North-West
Passage, but these were undoubtedly put out to disguise the real
object, which was plunder. In the event it became an exceedingly
successful privateering expedition. It not only paid 47 Pounds for every 1
Pound invested but also put England on the map as a rising sea power.
Drake sailed from Plymouth
on 13 December 1577 in command of the 100-ton Pelican (renamed Golden
Hinde in the Pacific), with four smaller ships and about 160 men.
Since he lacked charts, a Portuguese pilot was kidnapped and later put on
shore when they reached the Pacific. At Plymouth,
in a mixed crew of experienced seamen and gentlemen of the court who had
attached themselves to the expedition as representatives of the Royal
syndicate, Drake had also signed on two of his closest friends, the
brothers Thomas and John Doughty. The whole undertaking had been planned
in great secrecy between Elizabeth and her syndicate and Drake to keep it
unknown to Spain. Thomas Doughty, to whom Drake had explained the true
nature of the voyage in confidence, revealed the secret to Lord Burleigh,
the Lord Treasurer of England. Burleigh was aghast at the effect of such a
voyage on English relations with Spain, already exacerbated by Drake's
previous voyages. He did all in his power to prevent the expedition taking
place, and apparently persuaded Doughty to disrupt it should it succeed in
getting away.
Almost as soon as the ships had cleared the
Channel, Doughty began making trouble and inciting the crew to mutiny.
After a long and difficult passage, during which Drake accused Doughty of
being a sorcerer and creating contrary winds and storms, the expedition
reached Port St. Julian, close to the entrance of the Magellan Straits. It
was at this spot that Ferdinand Magellan had quelled a mutiny in his
circumnavigation. The remains of the gallows on which he had hanged his
mutineers were found by Drake and his men. With the fate of the whole
expedition hanging in the balance, Drake realized that it was time to
strike at the discord that was bedevilling his ships. He had Thomas
Doughty arrested, convened a "court of law" complete with a jury
of twelve men, and charged Doughty with treason and mutiny. He was
acquitted on the charge of treason but found guilty on that of mutiny, and
on the following day beheaded.
The next four weeks were spent in Port St. Julian
refitting the ships for the adventure into the Pacific, but the execution
of Doughty had not succeeded in removing the discord between the
professional crews and the gentlemen of the court. Drake was forced to act
again if the expedition was to succeed. At the end of the month he
mustered the entire expedition and made it the occasion of a remarkable
speech to the men, one of the best known of any ever made at sea. After
reminding the men of the desperate nature of their voyage into unknown
waters and of the recent mutinous troubles, he continued: "For by
the life of God, it doth even take my wits from me to think on it. Here is
such controversy between the sailors and gentlemen, and such stomaching
between the gentlemen and sailors, it doth make me mad to hear it. But, my
masters, I must have it left. For I must have the gentleman to haul and
draw with the mariner, and the mariner with the gentleman. What! let us
show ourselves to be of a company and let us not give occasion to the
enemy to rejoice at our decay and overthrow. I would know him that would
refuse to set his hand to a rope, but I know there is not any such here .
. .".
Having sailed through the Straits of Magellan, he
was driven south by a storm to about latitude 57 S. thus proving that
Tierra del Fuego was an island and not part of the great southern
continent or Terra Australis Incognita as it was becoming known. The
smaller ships had already left him, and during the storm he was separated
from his only remaining consort, the Elizabeth commanded by William
Wynter, who decided to return home when he could find no trace of Drake
and the Golden Hinde. The Golden Hinde thus entered the
South Seas alone, but as the Spanish settlements were unguarded, Drake
made several successful raids up the coast of South America. He sacked
towns and plundered shipping, his richest prize being the treasure ship Cacafuego
taken off Lima.
He continued north as far as latitude 48 N. where
he turned south again to land a New Albion, near San Francisco. From there
he sailed across the Pacific to the Moluccas, where he took six tons of
cloves and, for disciplinary reasons, dismissed his preacher, Francis
Fletcher, who wrote the best account of the voyage. He returned to
Plymouth on 26 September 1580, anxiously inquiring if the queen were still
alive to protect him against Spanish charges of piracy. His treasure,
estimated at half a million pounds in Elizabethan currency, was taken by
land to the Tower of London while he sailed the Golden Hinde
round to Deptford. There the queen knighted him, though she handed the
sword to a courtier for the actual accolade.
With his share of the plunder Drake purchased
Buckland Abbey, near Plymouth,
which is today the Drake family museum. His ship was laid up in dry-dock
as a memorial, but the only surviving timbers are a chair in the Bodleian
Library, Oxford, and a table in the Middle Temple Hall, London.
In 1585 he was given the command of an amphibious
expedition, which was the first act of open war with Spain. On this 'descent
of the Indies' he proved himself a master of combined operations,
sacking Santo
Domingo, Cartagena,
Saint
Augustine in Florida, and then taking off the first Virginian colonist
at Roanoke. He
returned to England to hear news of the preparations for the Spanish
Armada, some ships of which he proceeded to destroy at Cadiz in April 1587
in the operation known as 'the singeing of the King of Spain's beard'.
Soon afterwards he captured his greatest prize, the Portuguese carrack San
Felipe laden with goods from the East Indies valued at 114,000
pounds.
When the Spanish Armada sailed in 1588 Drake was
appointed vice admiral of the English fleet at Plymouth
under Lord Howard of
Effingham. There, on Plymouth Hoe, the first news of the Armada's
appearance off the Lizard
was received on 19 July (29 July new style) when, it is said, a game of
bowls was being played. Drake is reputed to have remarked, "There's
time to finish the game and beat the Spaniards too." Assuming
the tides were wrong for leaving the harbor, this is exactly the type of
statement he would have made. This statement, however, did not appear in a
written history until 1736, so its authenticity is somewhat dubious.
His part in the campaign, in command of the Revenge,
was that of leader of the fleet during the first night of the weeklong
chase up the Channel, when he took the opportunity to capture the galleon Rosario,
which he sent into Dartmouth. He may well have suggested the fireship
attack at Calais, and he certainly took the leading part in the gun battle
off Gravelines on 29 July. He continued the chase north until 2 August
when he returned with the fleet to the Thames.
In 1589 it was decided to destroy the remnants of
the Armada on the north coast of Spain. Drake was in command of the ships
and Sir John Norreys in command of the troops, which landed at Corunna and
Lisbon. They failed to achieve anything and disease soon decimated their
numbers. Elizabeth was so displeased at this failure that Drake was not
employed again for five years, during which time he became mayor of Plymouth
and represented the city in Parliament.
In 1595 he and Hawkins
were sent in command of another descent on the Indies,
but this time the Spanish settlements were so well fortified that nothing
was achieved. An attempt on Puerto
Rico failed, Hawkins
dying of dysentery off the island before the attack. Nombre
de Dios and other places on the mainland were sacked, but no treasure
was found and Drake himself fell victim of yellow fever. On 28 January
1596 he died off Puerto Bello and was buried at sea.
Drake's fame became legendary in his day. Though
he spent comparatively few years in the service of the state, he was
founder of the British naval tradition because of the heroic quality of
his exploits. He was the first captain to take his own ship round the
world, and he was the greatest privateer of all time. In appearance he as
short, stocky, and red-haired. Essentially a man of action, he was a
brilliant tactician both at sea and on land, but was less successful as an
administrator. He may have been ruthless, ambitious, and boastful, but he
was generous, cheerful, and an ideal leader of men.
For more information on Sir Frances Drake,
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