A cannon on the bow of a replica of Drake’s flagship ‘Golden Hinde’, built in 1973 at Appledore near Torridge in Devon, and now permanently stationed at St Mary Overie Dock in Southwark, London. She has been to sea many times, and has visited the Pacific coast of the USA just like the original, which was launched as ‘Pelican’ in 1573 and was renamed ‘Golden Hinde’ during Drake’s historic voyage.
Part 1 of 2
IT was no secret in Elizabeth I’s reign that King Philip of Spain coveted her crown.
He had never understood why it passed from his late wife, Mary, to her half-sister Elizabeth and not to him, and he resented Elizabeth giving refuge to dissidents fleeing bloody persecution in the Spanish Netherlands.*
Open war with mighty Spain was out of the question. But when Sir Francis Drake proposed assembling a small fleet at his own expense, and sailing off in the general direction of Spain’s Latin American colonies, Elizabeth saw no reason to discourage him.
Drake had already caught one tantalising glimpse of the Pacific across the Isthmus of Panama in 1573, and returned home in ships groaning with Spanish plunder. In 1577, he set out for South America once again in his flagship Pelican, accompanied by four other small ships with a total crew of a hundred and sixty-four. They included several gentlemen keen to learn the art of navigation.
The reason the crown did not pass to Philip was that Mary herself was crowned Queen on the strict understanding that Philip was not King of England, and could never inherit the crown.
Précis
In 1577, the Elizabethan adventurer Sir Francis Drake set out for South America, hoping to frustrate the King of Spain’s war effort by disrupting the flow of gold from Spanish colonies. Queen Elizabeth I, wise enough not to get involved officially, looked the other way as Drake sailed away in his flagship ‘Pelican’. (52 / 60 words)
Part Two
It is easy to see why Sir Francis Drake was reminded of home when on June 17th, 1579, he first saw Drake’s Bay, now in Marin County north of San Francisco in California. He claimed the land for England as ‘Nova Albion’, struck by the resemblance to the White Cliffs of England’s south-eastern coast. See the commemorative plaque erected there by the Drake Navigators Guild.
BY the time Drake had threaded the Straits of Magellan, only his flagship Pelican, now rechristened Golden Hinde, was seaworthy. Undaunted, Drake pressed on alone up the Pacific coast, causing chaos in colonial towns all the way to Lima, where he captured a Spanish galleon laden with treasure for Spain’s war effort.
After touching on the California coast, and claiming it for the Queen under the name of ‘Nova Albion’, Drake struck out across the Pacific to Java and India, rounded Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, and headed home to Plymouth, arriving on September 26th, 1580, as the first captain to lead a successful voyage round the world.*
Drake had cost Spain dear in time, money and pride. But at last, despite the English adventurer, Philip had the ships, the men and the guns for the greatest navy ever to put to sea, and on July 20th, 1588, the Invincible Armada came in sight of England’s shores.
Waiting at Plymouth Hoe was Sir Francis Drake.
The first global circumnavigation, from 1519 to 1522, was begun by Ferdinand Magellan and finished by Juan Sebastián Elcano. Their ship was ‘Victoria’, and some of her crew were present throughout the entire journey. However, Drake was the first commander to lead a complete voyage around the world in one ship.
Précis
Drake rounded the southern tip of South America in his flagship (now renamed ‘Golden Hinde’), and continued up the Pacific coast, throwing Spain’s war preparations into confusion. Having staked a claim to what is now California, he sailed steadily west, and became the first commander to complete a circumnavigation of the globe when he returned to England in September 1580. (59 / 60 words)
