Drake, Sir Francis

Drake, Sir Francis (c.1543–96), born at Crowndale, near Tavistock, Devon, though the date of his birth is uncertain. Nor is anything known about his early years beyond the assumption that, after his father became a preacher at Chatham, he served his apprenticeship in the Thames coastal trade. In 1567 Drake, who was a cousin of John Hawkins, was given command of the 50-ton Judith, on Hawkins's third, financially unsuccessful, slave-trade voyage. A clash with the Spaniards during it left Drake, who had strong Protestant convictions, with a passionate desire for revenge. He spent the next few years as a privateer taking part in raids on the Spanish Main, but his opportunity only really came in 1577 when he was engaged by a syndicate headed by Elizabeth I to make the first circumnavigation of the world by a captain commanding his own ship, through seas claimed exclusively by Spain.

It has long been assumed that the only objective for the voyage was plunder, and that his declared intention to find Terra Australis Incognita before returning home via the elusive North-West Passage was merely a cover story. However, recent research has intimated that Drake really did try and find the North-West Passage, though he certainly made no attempt to discover Terra Australis Incognita. Whatever his motives, the voyage became an exceedingly successful privateering expedition, which not only paid £47 for every £1 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 (later renamed Golden Hinde), together with four smaller ships and about 160 men. Since he had no charts, a Portuguese pilot was kidnapped and later put on shore when they reached the Pacific. The whole expedition had been planned in the greatest secrecy but one of Drake's closest friends, Thomas Doughty, whom Drake had taken into his confidence, informed Lord Burleigh, the Lord Treasurer of England, of its imminent departure. Burleigh, aghast at the effect of such a voyage on English relations with Spain, already made difficult by Drake's previous exploits, did all in his power to prevent the expedition taking place, and apparently persuaded Doughty to disrupt it should it succeed in sailing. This Doughty proceeded to do, making trouble and inciting the crews to mutiny, and by the time the expedition reached Port St Julian, close to the entrance of the Magellan Straits, Drake had to take drastic action. He had Doughty arrested, convened a ‘court of law’ complete with a jury of twelve men, and charged Doughty with treason and mutiny. Doughty was acquitted on the charge of treason but found guilty on that of mutiny, and was immediately executed.

After sailing through the Straits of Magellan Drake was driven south by a storm to about latitude 57° S., thus proving that Tierra del Fuego was an island, not a part of the great southern continent. By this time he had become separated from two of the ships and during the storm he lost touch with the only other one, the Elizabeth. When he could find no trace of the Golden Hinde, her captain turned for home. Drake, therefore, entered the South Seas alone, but as the Spanish settlements along the western coast of South American were unguarded, he made several successful raids along the coastline, his richest prize being the treasure ship Cacafuego which he took off Lima.

He then continued north to search for the strait that the Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius (1527–98) theorized would lead to the elusive North-West Passage, and there is some evidence to suppose that he reached a latitude of about 56° N. However, great secrecy and subterfuge surrounded the voyage on his return and there can be no great certainty about this. He may well have thought he had found the entrance to the Strait before being forced to turn back because of ice. He then sailed south, and landed at a place he named New Albion, probably Vancouver Island, before sailing across the Pacific to the Moluccas, returning to Plymouth on 26 September 1580. 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, six months later, he was knighted by Elizabeth I aboard his ship, though for the actual accolade she handed the sword to the French ambassador.

Drake's next command, with Sir Martin Frobisher as his vice admiral, was an amphibious expedition to the West Indies in 1585, the first act of open war with Spain. During it, Drake proved himself a master of combined operations, sacking San Domingo, Cartagena, St Augustine in Florida, and then taking off the first Virginian colonists. He returned to England to the news of the preparations for the Spanish Armada, some ships of which he proceeded to destroy at Cadiz in April 1587, operations 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.

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 when, it is said, a game of bowls was being played by Drake. Drake is reputed to have remarked, ‘there is time to finish the game and beat the Spaniards, too’, but as the English fleet was embayed, and as the remark is first recorded in 1736, it is doubtful whether he made it, though that he was playing bowls when he heard the news is quite possible.

Drake's part in defeating the Armada, while in command of the Revenge, was that of leader of the fleet during the first night of the week-long chase up the Channel, when he took the opportunity to capture the Rosario galleon 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.

The following year it was decided to destroy the remnants of the Armada on the north coast of Spain, and Drake commanded the ships which took the troops to Corunna and Lisbon. They failed to achieve anything and disease soon decimated their numbers. Drake was not employed again for five years, during which time he became mayor of Plymouth and represented the city in Parliament. His last expedition, to the Indies again in 1595, was also a failure and in January 1596, after sacking several places on the mainland in a fruitless search for treasure, he died of yellow fever off Porto Bello and was buried at sea.

Drake became a legend in his own lifetime. Though he spent comparatively few years in the service of the state, he was a founder of the British naval tradition because of the heroic quality of his exploits. He, not Magellan, was the first captain to sail around the world in his own ship, and he was the greatest privateer of all time. In appearance he was short, stocky, and red haired. A man of action, he was a brilliant tactician both at sea and on land, but he was less successful as an administrator. He may have been ruthless, ambitious, and boastful, but he was also generous, cheerful, and an ideal leader of men.

See also drake's drum; replica ship; warfare at sea.

Bibliography

Bawlf, S. , The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake (2003).
Kelsey, H. , Sir Francis Drake, the Queen's Pirate (1998).
Sugden, J. , Sir Francis Drake (1990).