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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Francis Drake
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(c.1541–96, kt 1581)
The first sea captain to sail round the world. Son of a Protestant naval chaplain (from a farming family in Devon) and related to *Hawkins, he first proved himself in the English sport of raiding the Spanish main (the coast bordering the southern part of the Caribbean Sea). In 1577 he was put in command of an expedition to plunder Spanish trade in the Pacific and then to complete a circumnavigation of the globe – a feat achieved only once before, in 1519–22, by one of Magellan's ships (Magellan himself died on the voyage in 1521).
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Drake set off with five ships. Of these only his own, the Golden Hind (renamed from the Pelican), completed the journey in 1580. He was knighted by the queen on board his ship at Deptford, where the Golden Hind remained for another century or so as a tourist attraction, in a special dock. With his share of the profits from the voyage Drake bought Buckland Abbey, in Devon, which now contains a museum in his honour. He was prominent in the campaign against the *Armada, commanding the Revenge and taking the leading role in the attack at Gravelines. (His legendary remark when playing *bowls on Plymouth Hoe does not appear in print until 1736.) He died in the Caribbean, still busy plundering the Spanish.
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