Francis Drake was the eldest of twelve children in the family of Edmund Drake, an ardent supporter of Martin Luther. At the age of twelve, Francis was sent to train on a merchant ship.
In 1563 he made the first long journey to Africa with his cousin. There they began to capture local residents and sell them to the Spaniards in the Caribbean. Since the Spanish settlers were forbidden to trade with foreigners, Drake had a conflict with the Spanish authorities.
A couple of years later, he made the first attack on a Spanish ship. His share of the booty consisted of silver and gold, totaling around £40,000. A staunch Protestant, Drake fancied himself an instrument of God in the fight against Catholics.
The biography of Francis Drake includes many seizures of foreign ships off the coast of both Americas and in the Atlantic Ocean. After meeting Sir Francis Walsingham, he had a plan to go to the Pacific Ocean and defeat the Spanish settlements there.
Thus, the purpose of Francis Drake's journey was not idle interest: his goal was the wealth of the Spaniards and the strengthening of the position of the Protestant church. The expedition was sponsored by several influential people in England and by Queen Elizabeth 1 herself. In total, five ships equipped with guns were equipped for the campaign.
The journey began in November 1577. By the end of the month, Francis Drake had plundered six Spanish and Portuguese ships. On one of them was a captain who knew the coast of Africa well. It was decided to take him with him. In addition, Drake left his ship and appropriated one of the Spaniards' ships.
By June 1578, the flotilla reached the port of San Julian in southern Argentina, where Drake had one of his subordinates executed for attempting to mutiny. Fearing a new conspiracy, he announced that all ship captains appointed by their owners would be stripped of their powers. True, then he again appointed almost all of them captains, but already under his own leadership.
During the passage to the Pacific Ocean, the ships were caught in a severe storm. One of the ships turned back to England, another disappeared without a trace, another remained in San Julian. As a result, Drake ended up in the Pacific Ocean alone, on his Pelican, renamed the Golden Doe. During the journey, he discovered that Tierra del Fuego is not part of South America, as previously thought. The strait that Francis Drake discovered was later named after him.
Having circled Argentina, the flotilla moved along its western coast. Along the way, a ship with rich booty was captured and the port of Valparaiso was destroyed. By March, Drake had robbed two more Spanish ships carrying money. However, by this time his team consisted of only 70 people, half of whom were injured or sick. In addition, the "Golden Doe" was seriously leaking. Having reached North America, he ordered to anchor in the area of the future California.
Here they were met by a local tribe, who considered the British gods who descended from heaven. The men presented them with gifts in the form of tobacco leaves and bird feathers, while the women sobbed and scratched their faces until they bled. When the time came to set sail, the Indians were greatly saddened. However, in July the ship set off further. In Java, they stocked up on food and crossed the Indian Ocean, then rounded the Cape of Good Hope.
On November 26, 1580, Drake returned to Plymouth, becoming the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world. This campaign brought him wealth and fame. By decree of Queen Elizabeth, he was henceforth called Sir Francis Drake and was elected to the House of Commons. He went to sea more than once to capture Spanish ships.
In 1588, Sir Francis Drake participated in repulsing the attack of the Invincible Armada of Spain, which ended in a crushing defeat for the Spaniards. Pursuing the remnants of the enemy fleet, the British had the opportunity to capture Lisbon, but the ships did not have siege weapons. For services to the fatherland, the queen appointed him mayor of Plymouth.
In 1595, he went on his last campaign, and this is where the biography of Francis Drake ends - in the Caribbean, the famous pirate and navigator died of dysentery at the age of 56. After his death, his body was committed to the ocean, with which he once connected his life.
Drake Francis (circa 1540-1596), English navigator.
Born in the city of Tavistock (Devonshire) in a farmer's family. In his youth, he sailed on coasters that entered the Thames. After the first trip across the Atlantic Ocean, Drake received a position as a ship captain in the squadron of J. Gaukins. In 1567, he participated in the maritime expedition of Gaukins to seize the ships of the Spanish slave traders and plunder the Spanish possessions in the West Indies.
Since 1570, Drake made pirate raids every summer in the Caribbean, which Spain considered its own. He captured Nombre de Dios in Mexico, plundered caravans that transported silver from Peru to Panama.
In December 1577, Drake set out on his most famous expedition. She was equipped with the money of private investors, which Drake was able to receive thanks to the patronage of the Earl of Essex, the favorite of Elizabeth I. Later, the navigator mentioned that the queen herself invested 1000 crowns. Drake was instructed to sail through the Strait of Magellan, find suitable places for colonies and return back the same way. He was also supposed to make raids on Spanish possessions in America.
Drake sailed from Plymouth on December 13, 1577. He commanded the Pelican ship (later renamed the Golden Doe) with a displacement of 100 tons; there were four more small ships in the squadron. Having sailed to the coast of Africa, the flotilla captured more than ten Spanish and Portuguese ships. Through the Strait of Magellan, Drake entered the Pacific Ocean; there a strong storm drove the ships south for 50 days. Between Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica, Drake discovered the strait, later named after him. The storm damaged the ships. One of them returned to England, the others drowned. The captain only had the Golden Doe left. Moving along the coast of South America, Drake plundered ships and harbors off the coast of Chile and Peru. On March 1, 1579, he captured the ship Kakafuego, loaded with gold and silver bars. In July of that year, the ship commanded by Drake crossed the Pacific Ocean. In 1580 he returned to Plymouth. Thus, the navigator made a round-the-world trip (the second after F. Magellan), which brought him not only fame, but also wealth.
Having received his share of the booty (at least £10,000), Drake bought an estate near Plymouth. Queen Elizabeth in 1581 granted him the title of knight. In 1585, Drake was appointed commander in chief of the English fleet bound for the West Indies. This marked the beginning of the war with Spain.
In March 1587, Drake took possession of the port city of Cadiz in southern Spain by an unexpected assault, destroyed it and captured about 30 Spanish ships. And again, in addition to military glory, the "pirate of Queen Elizabeth" received a lot of money - his personal part of the captured wealth amounted to more than 17 thousand pounds.
The pirates of the Atlantic and the Caribbean managed not only to remain in the memory of their descendants as dashing bandits, but also to give rise to an independent cultural phenomenon. Soon after rumors of treasures being shipped from America to Spain spread throughout the Old World, the Atlantic was filled with pirates. For more than two centuries they tormented "merchants" in the Atlantic, and then - through the efforts of the military fleets of the great powers - they disappeared from the seas.
From the seas, but not from the pages. Thanks to the efforts of writers, a classic image of a pirate was formed. If you rely on fiction, the sea robbers look almost invincible. The Spanish "golden galleons" are captured en masse, and when they land on the shore, the soldiers are unable to offer serious resistance. However, this picture is inevitably incomplete. First of all, stories about invincible filibusters were compiled mainly from the memories of the participants in pirate raids themselves, that is, people who were at least lucky enough not to end their careers on the gallows or in the jungle. In addition, the authors who wrote about the adventures of filibusters endlessly abused - and continue to abuse - the turnover "Spanish soldiers", without specifying what is hidden behind this turnover applicable to Latin America.
As a result, a phantasmagoric picture is drawn: infantrymen in recognizable morion helmets under the command of arrogant hidalgos hide whole regiments in every village lost in the wilderness of Mexico or Cuba, but at the sight of the enemy they quickly begin to celebrate a coward. In reality, things were much more complicated.
The settlements of Spanish America were usually protected from robbery by local colonial militias under their own governors, as well as armed blacks and Indians. For example, in 1555, Havana was defended from a raid by French corsairs by 40 regular soldiers, 100 blacks (mostly armed slaves) and another hundred Indians.
Although they had little warm feelings for the Spaniards, robbers from the outside seemed scarier. However, the soldiers among them were frankly unimportant. So in reality, the Spanish colonies had much less power for self-defense than one might think. Meanwhile, the resolute governor, who did not neglect his duties, and the defenders, confident in their strength, were often able to defend even a small colony from pirate raids. This episode will be discussed.
Her Majesty's Pirate
Among the sea robbers of the "golden age" the first among equals was, of course, Francis Drake. He began his career in the slave trade, but soon turned his attention to a much more profitable business. Corsairs first attacked Cartagena - a town on the South American coast - back in 1543, and since then the Spanish settlements have not known peace. Drake already had sufficient experience and some means to take part in the galleon hunt.
He enthusiastically began to "get the Spaniard", and Queen Elizabeth I personally invested in the expedition. A few years later, terror against Spanish trade brought Drake a knighthood, royal favor and, finally, wealth. The queen, having thousands of percent of the profits from each campaign, simply ignored the notes of the Spanish ambassador, raining down one after another.
We must pay tribute to the pirate: Drake not only robbed and killed. In a round-the-world robber expedition, he managed to make several important geographical discoveries. However, the key occupation and the main source of wealth was, of course, robbery. England and Spain were not at war, but who cared. On the ocean expanses, all peace treaties lost their force.
The peak of Drake's fame came in 1588, when, with his participation, the Spanish Invincible Armada, a fleet sent to land troops in Britain, was defeated. Drake bathed in the rays of glory, possessed a huge fortune - a rich man, a national hero, a man who enjoys great confidence in the Empress. No one could have imagined that the greatest pirate was on the verge of collapse.
After the collapse of Spain's plans, the British decided to move the war to the Pyrenees. The purpose of the campaign was Lisbon, the capital of Portugal and at that time the key base of the Spanish fleet. An important nuance: it was a private project. Queen Elizabeth was simply one of the "investors" and invested her personal money, although her share was the largest. The fleet was also not a centrally equipped squadron, but a collection of various vessels: from powerful warships to armed "merchants". After the victory over the Spanish Armada, a great mood reigned in the ranks of the British.
All the more bitter was the disappointment. An attempt to break into Lisbon ended in a grand fiasco. The Spaniards exhausted the English landing force with skirmishes, continuously shelled it from the sea, and eventually forced the unlucky destroyers to retreat. Moreover, on the way back, the British fleet stopped because of the calm. The Spaniards were just waiting for this: they had a powerful galley fleet that did not depend on the wind. And when boarding, the Spanish marines then had no equal.
Drake himself escaped capture only thanks to great luck: the Spaniards took turns seizing the English ships, and soon his turn could come, but, fortunately for the pirate, the wind finally blew, so that the squadron managed to escape. The leaders of the campaign lost control of the fleet, the Spaniards caught and captured the stragglers.
Upon his return, a huge scandal erupted. At least a third of the ships and people died or fell into the hands of the Spaniards, the Spanish fleet, which was written off from the accounts, celebrated the victory, and most importantly: in the commercial sense, the campaign brought one devastation. Elizabeth's personal losses ranged from 50 to 100 thousand pounds sterling - just insane numbers for those times.
The enraged queen turned out to be just one of the shareholders who believed that they were simply, in modern terms, thrown. In addition, sailors rebelled, who, on the occasion of the failure of the campaign, were not paid a salary, but this problem was solved simply: the most active troublemakers were hanged. Drake, on the other hand, received a real slap in the face: the empress, who had cooled sharply towards him, appointed the pirate commander of the coastal defense of Plymouth with a ban on going to sea. A greater humiliation for the old sea dog could not be imagined. The once brilliant corsair could restore his thoroughly tarnished (or rather, dried up!) reputation in only one way: to achieve a truly grandiose success.
panama trek
England, of course, did not completely forget her admiral. Within a few years, the impression of the Lisbon failure faded, and in 1595 the corsairs received a new task: to arrange an expedition across the Atlantic with the ultimate goal of capturing and ruining Panama. America was for Spain what Siberia is now for Russia, the main source of national wealth. Silver was continuously mined in the West Indies, brought to the Iberian Peninsula in grandiose convoys, and Panama was one of the key Spanish colonies in America. Bonanza: the capture of this city made it possible to recoup any expenses and made it possible to fill the treasury of England, which had been fairly impoverished from protracted wars.
The shadow of Lisbon still hung over the expedition: Drake was paired with another famous pirate, John Hawkins, as well as General Baskerville. The corsair himself intended not only to conduct a good raid, but to restore the reputation of the first among the "sea dogs" of Elizabeth.
This desire at all costs to achieve some out of the ordinary result affected the course and outcome of the expedition. In total, Drake received six royal warships for his campaign, two dozen private ships and more than forty transport, landing, messenger - in a word, auxiliary ships. More than four thousand sailors and soldiers participated in the expedition.
Is it a lot or a little? Many years later, Henry Morgan would take over Panama with more than half as many men and ships. True, Morgan's base would be in Jamaica, while Drake had to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Be that as it may, with a good organization of the campaign and a minimum of luck, the task of the expedition looked quite solvable. However, Sir Francis Drake's supply of luck has already been drained to the bottom ...
Captives from an accidentally captured Spanish vessel testified that a galleon of the "silver fleet" was being repaired in the harbor of Puerto Rico. The information was completely true: the ship was indeed being repaired in the harbor, the repair was delayed, and the cargo - silver and gold - was stored in the local cathedral. However, on the way to Puerto Rico, the pirate fleet had something to do. On September 24, the ships approached the Canary Islands.
The problem is that Don Alonso de Alvarado, a seasoned veteran of the wars with the Turks and a stern professional, has recently been appointed governor of these regions. At the head of 300 soldiers and 1200 militias, he took the fight on the island of Gran Canaria. The Spaniards had nowhere to retreat, besides, Alvarado knew the possible landing sites like the back of his hand and guessed exactly where to expect the landing.
The ships of the corsairs stumbled upon the powerful and accurate fire of the guns rolled out to the beaches, on one of the ships the binnacle was broken, the other was forcibly rescued with a hole at the waterline. An attempt to even collect fresh water on the islands failed. The campaign for precious moisture had simply disastrous consequences: the British were attacked from an ambush, and two sailors, including the ship's doctor, were captured.
The captured pirates turned out to be frank and even talkative people: messenger sailboats rushed from Gran Canaria to the west with a message about the approach of the pirates, their goals and the approximate composition of the squadron. The hooligan raid on the Canaries failed, but the cherished galleon loomed ahead, still hiding in Puerto Rico.
Meanwhile, the "flare" of the squadron in the Canary Islands stirred up a hornet's nest. Captain General Pedro de Guzman came out to intercept the corsairs. Guzmán, like his Canarian counterpart, was an old warrior who also had five brand new light frigates of the original design under his command and was now eager to try them out. Not far from Guadeloupe, the Spaniard found two barges that had strayed from Hawkins' detachment. One of the "British" left, but the other Spaniards captured, shook out the route of the British from the prisoners and rushed to Puerto Rico to save the precious galleon.
While the "English" were moving towards Puerto Rico, the faster Spanish frigates reached the harbor. Guzman developed a vigorous activity to prepare the fort for defense. The guns from the frigates went to reinforce the forts. The galleon itself, already without gold on it, was flooded in the fairway of the bay of the city of San Juan. Batteries were hastily erected on the shore and immediately camouflaged. Finally, Don Pedro prepared a stunning surprise for the pirates...
On November 22, English ships approached San Juan. It can be seen that the Spaniards took care of the defense, but, what luck, there are no cannons in their forts. No one is firing on the invaders. You can come close to the fortifications and calmly, watching the Spaniards on the shore, decide how to take them. Drake ordered to anchor some hundred meters from the coast and the helplessly silent fort and called the commanders to his ship - to consult and have lunch at the same time.
The meal was interrupted in the most rude way. There were cannons in the forts, but Don Guzman, with great composure, lured the British under fire. The embrasures come to life and the fort starts spewing cannonballs! The English squadron simply asked for it to be shot: no matter where you hit, you still get there.
A chair was knocked out from under Drake, several captains in his cabin were killed or wounded at once. Regarding the fate of Hawkins, Drake's relative and old ally in the slave trade at the dawn of his youth, English and Spanish historians are still arguing. The British believe that the old pirate died of dysentery a little earlier, the Spaniards - that he, along with others, was killed outright on deck. Many small ships that accompanied the squadron sank opposite the Spanish fortifications, the corsair fleet retreated to a safe distance in a panic.
Drake tried to get into the harbor in the dark. At night, two dozen landing boats, with 50-60 people each, entered the bay, but were discovered. There was no surprise attack. The British approached a short distance to one of the frigates and eventually burned one of them - "Santa Magdalena". However, it would be better if they did not do this: the fire of the Magdalena lit up the entire harbor. From the shore, cannons and muskets were often and accurately fired, since it was not difficult to hit the target with such illumination.
In the flames of the Magdalena, Drake's hopes of capturing Puerto Rico and the galleon with jewels burned down. Guzmán waited until the British had gone to sea and soon moved the silver and gold to Spain as a matter of routine. The Spanish commander had every reason to be pleased with himself and his people.
Last chance
But Drake was in complete disarray. The expedition has already suffered heavy losses, several captains, including the living legend of piracy, John Hawkins, no longer need any treasures, and the holds are still empty. What to do next? Go back to England and become a laughing stock? In London, they know how to count money and they will not forgive a second failure. So, you need to move forward. Drake had the great goal of the whole campaign - to conquer Panama.
On December 27, 1595, the ships anchored at the town and fort of Nombre de Dios, in the northern part of the isthmus. The inhabitants and the garrison fled to the forests. There was no booty in the city, and the pirates made an obvious decision: to take Panama, which required going through the isthmus. Thomas Baskerville was responsible for the land part of the expedition, and he led the march of 750 corsairs to the Pacific Ocean.
However, among the seasoned Spanish commanders who met Drake and his team, there was also a third fighter - Alonso de Sotomayor. The governor of Chile was about to sail to Spain when he learned about the raid of pirates. Now he erected redoubts in the path of filibusters. While the British, under heavy rains, made their way through the jungle, driving away snakes and crocodiles, the Spaniards erected a wooden fort in their path and made blockages.
Sir Baskerville tried to take these fortifications on the move. However, for the British, the war in the jungle was new. Walking through the mud to a small fortress, from which arquebuses and crossbows are fired, is a dubious pleasure. In addition, the Spaniards, who lived here for years, fired at the pirates directly from the forest in loose formation. Baskerville himself was wounded and eventually ordered a withdrawal. In the jungle, he left more than half of the detachment, and not all of them fell victim to the fire of the Spaniards. People got sick, got into the teeth of crocodiles, any wound in these parts quickly began to fester.
But the main problem was water. In the jungle, this is a real broth of microorganisms, but there was nowhere to get alpine springs. Pirates set sail from Nombre de Dios and still try to find some prey, but for further searches it is sometimes necessary to land on the shore and stock up on water. At one fine moment, something happened on the surviving ships that could have happened a long time ago - dysentery began.
One of the patients was Drake. In mid-January, he fell ill and never left the cabin. On January 28, the admiral and pirate died quietly on board the ship. Baskerville betrayed his remains to the sea in a lead coffin, and he himself decided to turn off the campaign that ended so badly.
Of the entire flotilla, only eight large ships returned to Plymouth, 3 thousand people died, including two corsairs of the first rank - Admirals Hawkins and Drake. Thus ended the greatest pirate of his time. And just at the moment when the remnants of the squadron appeared in the Plymouth roadstead, another silver fleet with a precious cargo on board entered the Spanish harbor.
Literature devoted to the campaigns of the corsairs of the Caribbean and the Atlantic usually tells about the successes of the pirates. The history of the ruin of Maracaibo, the capture of Puerto Bello, the raids on Veracruz and Cartagena, or the adventures of the "Golden Hind" of the same Drake really show bright, bloody and dramatic plots in the history of world piracy.
However, the Spaniards who were subjected to these raids were not whipping boys at all. Drake's latest expedition does a good job of showing what could happen if a colony could not be taken by surprise and had enough determined soldiers with a smart commander at its head.
"Maxim Maksimychi" from the distant outskirts of the Spanish Empire, perhaps, were not as colorful personalities as the robbers of the seas. Corsairs like Drake will be remembered by anyone who, at least as a child, was interested in the history of piracy. John Hawkins was somehow immortalized by Stevenson, who gave his hero almost the same name. The fictional Captain Blood uses Henry Morgan's recognizable tactics.
Their opponents did not get even a tenth of that glory. Meanwhile, Alvarado or Guzman appear as much more worthy people: competent and cold-blooded commanders, they stubbornly and successfully defended their villages. Although the towns of Spanish America were in those days microscopic villages lost in the selva, the Spanish commanders and soldiers had something to protect, and often they managed to take cruel revenge on their tormentors.
The content of the article
DRAKE, FRANCIS(Drake, Francis) (c. 1540–1596), English navigator, pirate. Born near Tavistock in Devonshire between 1540 and 1545. His father, a former farmer, became a preacher in Chatham, south of London. Drake probably sailed at first on coasters that entered the Thames. The Drake family was related to the wealthy Hawkins family of Plymouth. Therefore, after a little-known first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, Drake received a position as captain of a ship in John Hawkins' squadron, which was engaged in the slave trade and delivered them from Africa to the Spanish colonies in the West Indies. The 1566–1567 voyage ended in failure as the Spanish launched a treacherous attack on English shipping off the fortress of San Juan de Ulúa in the port of Veracruz on the east coast of Mexico. Revenge for this attack became one of the motives for the subsequent pirate activities of the Treasurer of the Navy J. Gaukins and Captain F. Drake.
Trip around the world.
For several years, Drake made pirate raids in the Caribbean, which Spain considered its territory, captured Nombre de Dios in central Panama, robbed caravans carrying silver cargo from Peru to Panama on mules. His activities attracted the attention of Elizabeth I and a group of courtiers, including the State Treasurer Lord Burghley and Home Secretary Francis Walsingham. Funds were raised for an expedition that lasted from 1577 to 1580. Originally planned to search for the supposed southern mainland, it resulted - perhaps at the direction of the queen (although England and Spain were not yet at war) - in the most successful in history a pirate raid that brought in £47 for every pound invested.
Drake sailed as the captain of the ship "Pelican" (later renamed the "Golden Doe") with a displacement of 100 tons . In addition, there were four smaller ships, which, however, never completed their journey. After putting down a mutiny on a ship off the coast of Patagonia in Argentina, when one of his officers, Thomas Doughty, was punished, Drake entered the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Magellan. Then his flotilla was carried south to about 57 ° S, and as a result, Drake discovered between Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica the strait that now bears his name (although he himself probably never saw Cape Horn). On his way north, he plundered ships and harbors off the coast of Chile and Peru, and seems to have intended to return through the proposed Northwest Passage. Somewhere at the latitude of Vancouver (no ship's logs survived), due to bad weather, Drake was forced to turn south and anchor a little north of modern San Francisco. The site, which he called New Albion, was established in 1936 thanks to the discovery of a copper plate with the date June 17, 1579, about 50 km northwest of the Golden Gate (now Drake's Bay). An inscription is engraved on the plate, declaring this territory the possession of Queen Elizabeth. Drake then crossed the Pacific Ocean and reached the Moluccas, after which he returned to England.
Drake sailed around the world, demonstrating the skill of navigation. The queen granted him a knighthood as the first captain to circumnavigate the globe (Magellan's claims were disputed, since he died during the voyage in 1521). The account of Drake's voyages, compiled by the ship's chaplain Francis Fletcher and published by Hakluth, is still very popular. After receiving his share of the booty, Drake purchased Buckland Abbey near Plymouth, which now houses the Francis Drake Museum.
War with Spain.
In 1585, Drake was appointed commander-in-chief of the English fleet heading for the West Indies, which meant the beginning of open war with Spain. His skill in the tactics of combined sea and land operations made it possible to capture successively Santo Domingo (on the island of Haiti), Cartagena (on the Caribbean coast of Colombia) and St. Augustine (in Florida). Before returning to his homeland in 1586, he took with him the colonists (at their request) from the valley of the Roanoke River (Virginia). Thus, the first colony in America, founded by Walter Raleigh, ceased to exist, which was not just a settlement, but also a strategic base for pirate raids in the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, in Spain, the preparation of the Invincible Armada to attack England was successfully completed, so in 1587 Drake was sent to Cadiz on the southern Atlantic coast of Spain. Audacity, combined with superior power, allowed Drake to destroy the ships in this port. Everyone expected Drake to command a fleet in Plymouth to defend England from an attack by the Spanish Armada in 1588. However, the queen felt that due to her low birth and independent nature, Drake could not be appointed commander-in-chief. Although Drake himself was personally involved in the preparation and equipping of the fleet, he dutifully resigned leadership to Lord Howard of Effingham and remained his chief tactical adviser throughout the company.
Thanks to skillful maneuvering, the English fleet broke into the sea and turned the Armada back. When the week-long pursuit of the Armada began in the English Channel, Drake was appointed commander of the fleet on the Revenge (a ship with a displacement of 450 tons with 50 guns on board), but he rejected this offer, captured the damaged Spanish ship Rosario and brought him to Dartmouth. The next day, Drake played a decisive role in the defeat of the Spanish fleet at Gravelines (northeast of Calais).
Drake's expedition against Spain and the siege of the city of A Coruna on its northwestern coast, undertaken in 1588 to destroy the remnants of the Armada, turned out to be a complete failure, mainly due to miscalculations in the logistics of the campaign. Drake fell into disgrace, although he continued to be actively involved in local affairs as Mayor of Plymouth and Member of Parliament for that city. In addition, he founded an asylum in Chatham for wounded sailors. In 1595 he was again called to the navy to lead an expedition to the West Indies together with J. Gaukins. The expedition ended in failure, Hawkins died off the coast of Puerto Rico, and Drake himself died of a fever on January 28, 1596 off the coast of Portobelo.
Francis Drake (Francis Drake) is one of the most famous English pirates. Second person after Magellan to circumnavigate the world.
The early years of Francis Drake
Francis was born around 1545 in the town of Tenwiston, Devonshire. The family was not rich and had many children, except for Francis Edmund Drake eleven more children were born. Francis' father was a former sailor.
Since Francis was the eldest child, he began to help his father early and at about 10 years old got a job as a cabin boy on a small merchant ship. The inquisitive boy deftly coped with the work and grasped the basics of navigation on the fly, which the old captain liked very much. Since the captain was his relative and had no children, he bequeathed his ship to Francis.
At 16, Francis Drake became the owner of a 50-ton barque Judith
. Little is known about the first years of Drake's voyage, we only know that he took part in the slave trade during a pirate expedition. John Lovell.
Drake's first expeditions and first failures
At the end of 1567 Francis Drake took part in the expedition of another of his relatives John Hawkins, a wealthy armator who planned to plunder the Spanish fortresses on the coast of Mexico.
But the expedition was extremely unsuccessful. For a very long time, the British could not capture slaves or even rob any Portuguese slave ship. When they managed to load a sufficient number of slaves, they could not sell them to the Spanish planters for a long time. The English ships got into a strong storm, and when they entered the harbor, the squadron accompanying the Silver Fleet blocked the exit for repairs. Of the six English ships, only Drake's managed to get away without loss. See the biography for a more detailed account of this expedition. John Hawkins.
Returning to England, Drake married Mary Newman, after which he went on several ships to the Caribbean Sea, for reconnaissance. But all campaigns before the expedition of 1672 were reconnaissance in nature, so no documents about these Drake campaigns have been preserved.
In May 1672 Francis Drake goes across the ocean again Silver caravan
. The British went on this expedition on two small ships, and already on the way to America, the British robbed several Spanish ships. Having reached the Isthmus of Panama, the expedition together with the pirates James Rense attacked the city of Nombre de Dios, but they failed to capture the city, in addition, Drake was wounded in the leg. Despite this, Drake cruised along the coast for several months, robbing Spanish ships.
Finally, the British landed and tried to capture the silver caravan. By a stupid accident, instead of a caravan with silver, Drake's squad captured a caravan with food. Enraged, Drake robbed the colony of Venta Cruz. Going out to sea, the British met French pirates under the command Guillaume Le Tetu, with whom they attacked the silver caravan again, this time luck smiled at the pirates. The booty was so large that the pirates could not carry it all away at once, so some of the booty was forced to hide on the spot. While combing the forest, the Spaniards found Le Tetu and shot him dead. Having threatened to torture one of the pirates, the Spaniards found the hidden silver. Drake was more fortunate, he safely reached his ships. The captured booty was divided between the British and the French, and soon Drake met a Spanish ship with food. Now that Drake had food and a strong ship, the British moved home.
The booty captured on the expedition was so great that Drake, after paying all the interest, was able to purchase the estate and three ships. But about 30 people did not return from the campaign, among them were two brothers of Francis.
Circumnavigation
Francis Drake led the suppression of the Irish uprising, for which he was presented Queen Elizabeth I. He used this audience to present to the queen his plan for an attack on the Spanish colonies in the Pacific. The queen approved the plan, but put one condition, to hide the names of the people who provided the finances for this expedition. Drake went to the trick, none of the team knew about the true purpose of the expedition until they reached the shores of South America.
There were three ships on the voyage. When the pirates crossed the ocean, they stopped at Bay of San Julian in which Magellan dealt with the rebels. Drake had to execute his friend, Captain Thomas Doughty on suspicion of preparing a rebellion. After that, here the flagship of the expedition was renamed Golden Doe
.
Coming out of Strait of Magellan, the ships were caught in a fierce storm. One of the ships was lost, the second was thrown back to the strait, and passing through it in the opposite direction, the ship returned to England. Golden Doe
Drake was carried far to the south, here the privateer made the discovery that Tierra del Fuego is an island, and not part of the southern mainland, as previously thought. The strait between Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica was later named after Drake.
When the storm subsided, Drake moved along the coast. Since up to that time none of the European ships, except for the Spanish, had ever been on the Pacific coast, the Spanish fortresses located on the coast were defenseless, and Drake's attacks were so sudden and unexpected that they almost always ended in luck. The Spaniards expected that Drake would return to England through the Strait of Magellan and put up a squadron, but Drake deceived the enemies, crossed the Pacific and Indian oceans, bypassed Africa and almost three years later returned to England.
It was the most profitable expedition in history. Drake brought from America gold and jewelry in the amount of 500 thousand pounds, in order to imagine the size of this amount, it should be said that England's costs in the fight against Invincible armada
, cost 160 thousand pounds, and the annual income of the English treasury was 300 thousand pounds. The return on every pound invested was 4,700%.
The queen arrived aboard Drake's ship and knighted him on deck. Drake was elected mayor of Plymouth and excelled in that position as well. For another 300 years, the inhabitants of this port city remembered their mayor with gratitude when they used drinking water.
Victory over the Invincible Armada
After returning Francis Drake made another successful expedition to the West Indies. He managed to rob the capital of Hispaniola, Santo Domingo, and one of the largest Spanish cities, Cartagena. The expedition involved 21 ships and more than two thousand soldiers.
Philip II declared Drake the main enemy of Spain. Spain began to prepare a huge fleet for the landing of the army on the English coast.
Drake managed to approach with a small squadron to the Spanish port, where there were about 60 ships. Thanks to the use of fireships, he managed to set fire to about 30 ships. Drake himself boarded a Spanish galleon with a displacement of 1200 tons. This sortie delayed the release of the forthcoming Invincible armada
. In the victory over the armada, the main ally of the British was the wind, which scattered the Spanish ships and made it impossible to land.
Drake's attempt to capture Lisbon ended in failure. The treasury suffered huge losses, which brought Drake the disfavor of the queen.
Last voyage
By the time of the last expedition, the Spaniards were able to learn from previous raids and were able to establish defense of fortresses and main mines. Diseases accompanied this expedition, and mowed down the soldiers and sailors. I did not escape this fate myself Francis Drake. He fell ill with dysentery and died on January 28, 1596. His body was placed in a lead coffin and thrown into the sea.
