DRAKE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 31 July 1926, Page 11

DRAKE

4 BRITAIN’S GREATEST SAILOR NAVIGATOR AND FIGHTER BOTH

A KINSMAN of Hawkins, Francis Drake was Britain’s greatest sailor. He was . the eldest of 12 sons of Edward Drake, a sailor. Hawkins noticed the spirit and ability of the lad, and took him to sea with him. At 18 he was purser of the ship, and at 22 was captain of a vessel called the Judith. He behaved gallantly in an action at St. John d’Ulloa, in the Gulf of Mexico, and returned to England, as he himself said, ‘‘with a great reputation and without a groat”—not an uncommon condition with the bold, reckless adventurers of the time. His ship’s company included a chaplain, who probably fitted his divinity to the latitudes in which he chanced to be cruising, and he had advised Drake on a question of ’ casuistry. “The case,” he said, “is clear. The King of Spain’s subjects have undone Mr Drake, and therefore Mr Drake is at liberty to take the best satisfaction he can on the subjects of the King of Spain.” This doctrine, we are told, “how rudely soever preached, was very taking in England.” In 1570 Drake sailed on his first expedition with two ships, the Dragon and the Swan, landed on the Isthmus of Darien, which he crossed, and then returned to England with a good booty. In the following year he made a less successful voyage in the Swan alone. He started on a third expedition from New Plymouth in 1572 —himself in the Pascha, of 70 tons, and his brother in the Swan, only 25 tons. With such small vessels did the Knightserrant of the ocean seek adventure in those days of daring. The crew consisted of 75 men and boys. An attack Avas made on the loavh of Nombre de Dios, on the Mexican coast, near Avliich Avere rich silver mines. The town A\ ; as taken by storm, but Drake Avas seriously Avounded, and the adA'enturers AA r ere compelled ' to return to their ships Avith very little booty. The tOAvn of Venta Cruz Avas next attacked, and captured, and a small amount of plunder obtained, but more AA r as got from a train of 50 mules that Avas met on the tvay. Drake’s men carried off as much plate as they could, and buried the rest. In these exploits they AVjere assisted by some of the native Indians, Avho hated the Spaniards Avith a very intelligible hatred, and as yet in the superior virtues of the English rovers. An Indian chief gave Drake four large Avedges of gold in exchange for a cutlass. With a seaman’s generosity, Drake gave this treasure to the common shock, saying “he thought it but just that those Avho bore the charge of so uncertain a voyage on his credit should share to the utmost in the adA’antages that voyage produced.” When the Aveather-beaten sails of the returning ships Avere seen from Plymouth Hoe,

Drake and his comrades received the congratulations of the townsmen on the success of their venture. After serving as a soldier in Ireland, Drake in 1577 sailed from Falmouth at the head of a fleet of five small vessels, the largest being only 80 tons, passed through the Straits of Magellan into the Pacific, plundered with patriotic, and probably a little private, zeal, the Spanish towns on the coast of Chili and Peru, and then, sailing westward, touched at the Bast Indies, and returned home by the Cape of Good Hope. It was the greatest adventure of his career. He was. the first Englishman who had sailed round the world, and it is no wonder that when he reached Deptford, Elizabeth warmly welcomed the bold seaman who had rivalled the greatest achievements of the vaunted Spanish navigators. She visited his ship, knighted him, and henceforth he was in great favour. In 1585-6 he was busy in the West Indies, doing all the damage he could to Spanish ships and Spanish towns, and a'~year afterwards he commanded 30 ships in an expedition to Cadiz. It was known that Philip was preparing his Armada, and Drake’s orders were to attack and destroy as many ships as he'could. With amazing daring, he entered Cadiz roads, passed the batteries, and in one day burned 100 vessels and possessed himself of immense boot} 7 . He sailed along the coast, plundering -and burning, and off the Azores captured an enormous “carrack, ” the richest prize ever taken at sea. This he brought in triumph to Plymouth, and the heads of his countrymen were nearly turned by the arriv'al of booty worth about a million sterling. Though Francis Drake was the most brilliantly successful seamen of his time, he had many rivals in the spirit of adventure. Chief among these were Martin Frobisher, the Arctic explorer; John Davis, who sailed along the coast of Greenland, and after whom Davis Straits were named; Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who led expeditions to the coast of America; Sir Walter Raleigh, whose voyage to Guiana he made the subject of a marvellous narrative; Thomas Cavendish, who emulated the feat of Drake by passing through the Magellan Straits, twice sailed round the world, returned with abundance of wealth, was knighted by the Queen, undertook another voyage without success, and died broken-hearted; Howard, of Effingham, who was head of the Queen’s navy which destroyed the Armada. These and many other maritime heroes destroyed the supremacy of Spain, and gained for England the proud title she has never since lost of ‘4mistress of the seas.”