UNEXPECTED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19992, 8 November 1927, Page 9

UNEXPECTED

FRANCIS DRAKE IN GERMANY A STATUE IN HIS HONOUR

A correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph writes: When we were motoring the other day in Western Germany a local guide book that had been a frequent cause of exasperation finally made good all omissions by setting us on the path of the completely unexpected in the way of a “sight." Looking to see whether the town of Offenburg had anything to make a short detour worth while, we learnt the surprising fact that it possessed a statue to—of all unlikely people—Sir Franeis Drake. What could possibly be the connection between this place set between the mountains of the Black Forest and the Rhine and the vanquisher of the Armada that would warrant the setting up of a statue to himf Clearly it had to be looked into. Offenburg proved to be a eharm'ng little town with a spacious market-place flanked by fine old houses, and, true enough, proudly surveying the scene of a statue of Sir Franeis Drake. Carved in red stone, the figure, save for the pointed beard, had in its general appearance something more Boman that Elizabethan about it. But there could be no mistake. One arm rested nonchalantly on an anchor, at his feet lay a globe and an unrolled chart. It was, however, the left hand that explained the secret of the British navigator on the banks of the Rhine. It held by the stalks a large bunch of potatoes, while flowery inscriptions on the pedestal sang the praises of the importer into Europe of * * the blessing of mankind. ” The statue, to judge from a somewhat obscure dedication, was erected by an admiring Strasburger in the middle of the last century. Of seamanship, Armada, or of England there was no mention, and so successfully does Sir Francis, as the discoverer of th a potato, appear to have been adopted into his unexpected home that locally even his name takes on a German turn. For an inhabitant, when asked about the existence of the statue, replied, "A ch! ja, der Drarke, den kenne ich naturlich. 91