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).

Drake, Sir Francis (1540–1596)

English navigator and privateer. The son of a yeoman farmer and devout Protestant, Drake was born near the town of Tavistock in Devonshire. He was a relation of the well-to-do Hawkins clan, a family of local shipowners, and through his connection to John Hawkins Drake was taken on as captain of the Judith in 1567 during one of Hawkins's profitable slaving expeditions. Although the fleet managed to capture and sell its human cargo, the voyage ended in disaster when it was attacked by hostile Spanish ships in the harbor of San Juan de Ulua. Only two vessels made it back to England, including Drake's own Judith. After this encounter, Drake made it his life's work to exact revenge on Spanish men, treasure, and ships, wherever he might find them.

Queen Elizabeth, unwilling to allow Hawkins to counterattack yet still in favor of naval operations against Spain, allowed Drake to return to the Spanish Main in 1570. Aboard the Susan, Drake explored the coasts of Panama and discovered the route followed by the Spanish treasure caravans from Peru, across the isthmus of Panama, to the Caribbean Sea. He intercepted and captured a large train of silver and brought the treasure safely back to England, making him a wealthy man. Not happy with this act of open warfare against Spain, Elizabeth banished him to Ireland for a time, where Drake served under the Earl of Essex to put down one in a long series of rebellions against English rule.

In 1577, Drake was commissioned by Elizabeth to lead a raiding fleet against Spanish ports on the Pacific coasts of the Americas. The navigator set sail with a fleet of five ships, but mutiny and poor weather hampered the voyage and only his flagship, the Golden Hind, made it through the Straits of Magellan and as far as the Pacific Ocean. Searching for a northerly passage back to the Atlantic Ocean, Drake's vessel landed somewhere near Drake's Bay, now in the state of California, and named the surroundings “New Albion” in the name of the queen and England. Instead of retracing his route, Drake then sailed west, across the vast Pacific to the Philippines, the East Indies, and the Indian Ocean and then around the Cape of Good Hope. Having collected a considerable fortune from Spanish treasure ships, he returned to England in September 1580. The voyage had made him the second European to circumnavigate the globe after Ferdinand Magellan had died accomplishing the same feat in 1519. On his return Drake was rewarded with a knighthood by the queen on the decks of the Golden Hind.

In 1581 Drake settled in Plymouth, where his renown as an adventurer and privateer earned him election as the town's mayor. Still yearning for the sea, in 1585 Drake accepted orders to disrupt Spanish preparations for an expedition against England. Drake and his crew attacked the Spaniards on the coast of Spain as well as at the Cape Verde Islands. The fleet then crossed the Atlantic Ocean, captured Spanish towns in South America, plundered the Spanish colony of Saint Augustine in what is now northeastern Florida, and reached the English colony at Roanoke, where he took on survivors and returned them to England. This voyage provoked open warfare between England and Spain, and King Philip II was soon ordering preparations for a naval assault. Elizabeth allowed Drake to strike the first blow, and in 1587 he reappeared in the port of Cadiz, where he destroyed about thirty Spanish vessels.

In 1588, as the Spanish Armada was gathering, Drake was appointed a vice admiral of the English fleet. Drake disrupted the expedition by raiding supply ships, delaying and weakening the Spanish fleet. The Armada then set out for the English Channel, but turned back after losing several skirmishes with Drake and other English commanders as well as very poor weather. In 1595 Drake was again in command, along with John Hawkins, of an expedition to Panama ordered by the queen. This time, the Spanish were warned ahead of time and were waiting for the English privateers. Off the port of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Hawkins died and Drake was beaten back from the harbor. On reaching Panama, Drake was ambushed by Spanish troops and forced out to sea, where he soon died of a fever.

See Also: Elizabeth I; Magellan, Ferdinand; Spanish Armada

Drake, Sir Francis (c.1543–96). In legend and perhaps in reality, Drake was the greatest of the Elizabethan ‘sea-dogs’. A skilled seaman and naval tactician, an inspiring leader of men, he was, nevertheless, capable of greed, disloyalty, injustice towards associates, and poor judgement as a naval strategist. His career was a key part of the process by which England emerged as an oceanic power. Though of yeoman stock, Drake became closely associated with a predatory and aggressive ruling aristocracy ready to sanction piracy and privateering against the French, Portuguese, and above all, the Spanish. The contests with the latter also had a religious edge as Drake was a determined protestant. Yet the Spaniards who knew El Draque admired him.

Originally from Devon, Drake learned seamanship apprenticed on a coastal bark plying from the Thames, but in the 1560s joined a kinsman, Hawkins, on ventures to Spain and then to west Africa and the Caribbean, procuring and selling slaves in the face of Portuguese and Spanish hostility. By 1569, Drake was in command of a ship. Details of his life are obscure, but he made at least three piratical expeditions to the Caribbean, with that in 1572 capturing 30 tons of silver, part of the Spanish treasure annually brought across the Isthmus of Panama. After an Irish venture, in 1577 Drake embarked on a circumnavigation of the globe financed by the queen and other great people. This was at once further plundering of the Spanish—now on the western coast of the Americas—a search for the Pacific end of the North-West Passage, and an attempt to reach the spice islands by going west. Drake's expedition was the second to circuit the globe and also led to his claiming California for Elizabeth. Just where Drake landed in California and whether a plaque which came to notice in 1937 was actually the one he left there in 1579 remain in dispute. On the return of the 70-foot-long Golden Hind in 1580, Drake, rich and famous, was knighted, while England, it has been said, began to think globally.

There followed further raids on Spain and, most notably, assaults on key Spanish positions around the Caribbean in 1585–6 and Cadiz in 1587. These actions, combined with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 with Drake second in command, ended Spain's unquestioned supremacy at sea, though they did not break Spain's naval power. Nor was Drake's role in the defeat of the Armada the key one.

In 1589, Drake led an expedition against Lisbon before settling to active involvement in the life of Plymouth, including becoming its MP. He was encouraged to resume a privateering career in 1595 since Elizabeth's policy favoured predation on Spain as a means of increasing England's stake in world trade. But the attacks in the West Indies failed and Drake died at sea. This disaster was soon forgotten as the legend was elaborated in subsequent years and centuries.

Roy C. Bridges

Drake, Sir Francis (c.1543–96). In legend the greatest of the Elizabethan ‘sea‐dogs’. A skilled seaman and naval tactician, an inspiring leader of men, he was, nevertheless, capable of greed, disloyalty, and poor judgement as a naval strategist. Though of yeoman stock, Drake became closely associated with a predatory aristocracy ready to sanction piracy against the French, Portuguese, and, above all, the Spanish. The contests also had a religious edge as Drake was a determined protestant.

Originally from Devon, Drake learned seamanship on a coastal bark plying from the Thames, but in the 1560s joined a kinsman, Hawkins, on ventures to Spain and the Caribbean. He made at least three more piratical expeditions to the Caribbean, with that in 1572 capturing 30 tons of silver. In 1577 Drake embarked on a circumnavigation of the globe financed by the queen. Drake's expedition was the second to circuit the globe and led to his claiming California for Elizabeth. On the return of the Golden Hind in 1580, Drake, rich and famous, was knighted.

There followed further raids on Spain and, most notably, assaults on key Spanish positions around the Caribbean in 1585–6 and Cadiz in 1587. These actions, combined with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 with Drake second in command, ended Spain's supremacy at sea. In 1589, Drake led an expedition against Lisbon before settling to involvement in the life of Plymouth, becoming its MP. He was encouraged to resume a privateering career in 1595 but the attacks in the West Indies failed and Drake died at sea.

Drake, Sir Francis (c.1540–96) English sailor and explorer. He spent his early career privateering in Spanish seas. He was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe; he set off in 1577 with five ships under the sponsorship of Elizabeth I to investigate the Strait of Magellan, tried unsuccessfully to find the North-West Passage, and finally returned to England via the Cape of Good Hope with only his own ship, the Golden Hind, in 1580. He was knighted the following year. Drake's raid on Cadiz in 1587 delayed the sailing of the Armada for a year by destroying its supply-ships, and the next year he played an important part in its defeat in the English Channel.