Biography : Sir Francis Drake

Sir Francis Drake, an English admiral, the most renouned seaman of the Elizibethian Age, was instrumental in defeating the Spanish Armada (1588). He was also the first person to captain his own ship, circumnavigating the globe (NOTE: Magellan captained the first circumnavigation but he didn't make it through the voyage).

The birthdate of Sir Francis Drake is unknown but is estimated to be around 1540. He was born at Crowndale, near Tavistock, Devonshire to a Protestant preacher. During the Catholic uprising of 1549, his family had to flee to Kent, near Chatham on the south bank of the Thames Estuary. In the 1550's he was first apprenticed to a small coastal vessel. Thus he learnt how to pilot small vessels within the most treacherous of conditions and due to his skill, the old sailor left him to command the ship. Dissatisfied to coastal trade, Drake sold his vessel and enlisted himself with the powerful Hawkins family of Plymouth, who were embarking on a trade to the "New World". This was the beginning to his famous and legendary voyages - the most famous of which is his circumnavigation of the globe. After he returned from the circumnavigation in 1580, he was knighted by the queen, aboard his vessel - the Golden Hind.

Drake was married Mary Newman, in 1569, and had no children. Twelve years hance she died and he was re-married in 1585, to Elizabeth Sydenham, who was almost 20 years his junior. In 1596, in an expedition, which was to be his last, led by him to Portugal, against the Spanish possessions in the West Indies turned out to be a failure, largely because the fleet was decimated by fever. Drake himself succumbed and was buried at sea off the town of Puerto Bello (modern Portobelo, Panama), ending his life as one of the world's greatest seamen.

Continue................His Voyages