The English explorer Francis Drake circumnavigated the Earth between 13 December 1577 and 26 September 1580. The expedition was authorised by Queen Elizabeth I and consisted of five ships. Termed a 'voyage of discovery', it was in effect an ambitious covert raiding voyage and the start of England's challenge to the global domination of Spain and Portugal.
Drake set off on 15 December 1577 after a delay of nearly six months. After capturing Spanish vessels and Portuguese caravels while crossing the Atlantic he became the first Englishman to navigate the Straits of Magellan. After reaching the Pacific Ocean in October 1578, he sailed up the west coast of South America. Due to losses by storms and disease, only two ships remained, one of which was the Golden Hind. Drake then plundered Spanish ports and took a number of Spanish treasure ships including the rich galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción. After continuing north, hoping to find a route back across to the Atlantic, Drake sailed farther up the west coast of America than any European ever had done, and landed in present-day California, claiming the land for England and naming it New Albion.
Unable to find a passage, Drake turned south in the lone Golden Hind and in July 1579 sailed west across the Pacific. His travels took him to the Moluccas, Celebes, Java, and then round the Cape of Good Hope and finally the western side of Africa. Drake arrived back in England in September 1580 with a rich cargo of spices and treasure and the distinction of being the second man to lead a circumnavigation of the globe with a ship intact, and the first Englishman to complete a circumnavigation. Seven months later, Queen Elizabeth had him knighted aboard the Golden Hind, much to the chagrin of King Philip II of Spain because of his piratical actions. As a result, the voyage was one of the precursors to the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604). Drake's intrusion into the Pacific, which Spain considered Mare clausum, triggered an immediate Spanish colonization attempt of the Strait of Magellan aimed to block access to the Pacific.
Background
During the early stages of the Age of Discovery, the Treaty of Tordesillas divided the New World into Spanish and Portuguese zones and was signed by the nations' respective monarchs and Pope Alexander VI. However the Protestant Reformation in the early sixteenth century resulted in Protestant nations of Europe that did not recognise Papal spiritual or temporal authority and subsequently rejected the treaty. One of these nations was England, and in the 1560s, King Philip II of Spain's relations with Queen Elizabeth I of England deteriorated, following her restoration of royal supremacy over the Church of England through the Act of Supremacy in 1559.
English merchants and adventurers subsequently engaged in trade missions with the various Spanish posts in the New World. Spain was deeply suspicious of any attempt by foreign powers to trade or establish colonies in their zone of control, going so far as to massacre several hundred French Huguenot inhabitants of Fort Caroline in French Florida in 1565 after they had surrendered.
In 1567, a fleet led by the English privateer Sir John Hawkins conducted a slave trading voyage, transporting enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to sell in Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Americas. Sir Francis Drake, a cousin of Hawkins, accompanied him on the expedition. A number of ships were lost however when they were attacked by a Spanish squadron at the Battle of San Juan de Ulua. As a result, the Spanish became a lifelong enemy for Drake and they in turn considered him a pirate.
Drake subsequently made two profitable trading voyages to the West Indies in 1572, commanding two vessels in a marauding expedition against Spanish ports in the Caribbean. He saw the Pacific Ocean and captured the port of Nombre de Dios on the Isthmus of Panama. He returned to England with a cargo of Spanish treasure but came at a tense time due to Elizabeth and Philip both agreeing and signing the Convention of Nymegen in 1573. Drake as a result had to lay very low over the next few years but intended on another future expedition where he knew he could get backing. With nearly 100,000 pesos of stolen loot secretly hidden away, Drake had enough money to command and set up a new fleet with a return to the Spanish Main. He also started to build a new more sturdy and heavily armed ship for the voyage.
Preparation
In 1577, Drake was secretly commissioned by Queen Elizabeth to set off on an expedition against the Spanish colonies on the American Pacific coast. The Queen invested 1,000 crowns in the venture and so Drake became a privateer. The expedition also intended to explore areas where there could be potential English settlement – the first of its kind. Elizabeth and members of her court, including Robert Dudley, Christopher Hatton and Francis Walsingham (now Elizabeth's Secretary of State) were among those who invested in Drake's voyage and secretly supported his privateering – the looting of Spanish ships and ports. Other prominent members were Clerk of the Queen's ships – George Wynter, Surveyor of the Navy – William Wynter and Sir John Hawkins.
Drake set up the fleet over the year – the command ship and one that Drake had finished building was the Pelican. Its design was based on the Biscayan built nao Victoria, the first ship to circumnavigate the world. It was 150 tons and was the most powerful ship of the expedition with eighteen guns in total. Of these seven were demi-culverins each side and two disassembled pinnaces. This was to be assisted by four other ships; Elizabeth of eighty tons with sixteen guns and was captained by John Wynter, Marigold a thirty-ton supply ship of ten guns captained by John Thomas and two supply ships Benedict and the Swan. In all the complement consisted of roughly 164 men in total. The ships were armed and equipped with care and sufficiency.
One essential member of crew was Diego, a formerly enslaved African who escaped from the Spanish and had joined Drake at Nombre De Dios in 1572. Diego, by then a free man, was also a capable ship builder and knew the trade having been employed in Drake's service. Diego's fluency in Spanish and English however would make him a useful interpreter when Spaniards or Spanish-speaking Portuguese were captured. He was employed as Drake's servant and was paid wages, just like the rest of the crew. As a free man he would accompany Drake assisting with local knowledge, but crucially, Drake through Diego would intend to feed false intelligence to the Spanish.
There were also 'gentlemen' adventurers all of whom were linked to the investors. One of these was Thomas Doughty, an attorney and personal secretary of Christopher Hatton. Doughty had accompanied Drake on a previous voyage, but tensions between the two would soon become apparent. Drake also had his younger brother Thomas and his cousin John to accompany him. In addition to this there were carpenters, a blacksmith, a botanist and several musicians to entertain the captain and crew, and Walsingham sent his chaplain and confidant Francis Fletcher as an observer.
Drake used the only means of what the globe looked like and at the time that was from the Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius's map Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Rather than reveal his true intentions, Drake told the crew they were embarking on a trading voyage to Levant. The reason for this was to persuade the men to take ship and to avoid knowing the real dangers they faced.
Drake and the fleet set out from Plymouth on 15 November 1577, but soon encountered a storm in the English Channel. Attempting to head back to port, they were too late – Pelican and Marigold suffered serious damage to their masts. They were forced to take refuge in Falmouth, and from there they returned to Plymouth for repairs which lasted nearly a month.
Circumnavigation voyage
They finally left Plymouth on 13 December heading South into the Atlantic, but poor winds led them to their first port of call two weeks later at Mogador off Morocco. Whilst assembling a Pinnace there Drake lost a man to Moorish raiders. Setting off again he sailed past the Canary Islands where the fleet captured three Spanish fishing vessels and three Portuguese caravels. The Benedict was swapped for one of the bigger Spanish vessels; a fifty-ton ship which was renamed Christopher, the Benedict itself was released with the prisoners.
Atlantic crossing
In January 1578 Drake then set off for the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands hoping for plunder and supplies. Stopping at Santiago island he encountered the Santa Maria, a Spanish merchant ship which he captured despite coming under fire from a fort's guns just off Praia. The ship was loaded with wine and other stores, and was renamed Mary. Drake used the ship's haul of useful Spanish maps but more importantly added a Portuguese navigator Nuno da Silva, a man with considerable experience navigating in South American waters and who was willing to help Drake. Drake assumed command of the Mary and reassigned Doughty to command his flagship the Pelican and set the captive Spanish crew off in a pinnace. Later tension between Drake and Doughty however turned sour when the latter accused Drake's brother, Thomas, of stealing from the captured cargo of wine.
During the long voyage across the Atlantic, Drake's hostility increased, fuelled by the rancour of his brother. As a result, Drake eventually demoted Doughty to command of the Swan. This insult proved too much for Doughty to take, and he began to complain bitterly about "the Captain General".
Rounding South America
After passing the coast of Portuguese Brazil, Drake's fleet suffered great attrition after storms twice scattered the fleet; so on 13 May Drake put in to a bay and anchored off Cape Tres Puntas in the San Jorge Gulf. Another storm blew up and the fleet once more were forced to run for the open sea. When the Swan became separated from the rest of the fleet during a severe storm, Drake became convinced that Doughty was practicing witchcraft.
On 17 May the fleet anchored in Deseado in order for the other ships to catch up, and over the next few days the fleet was brought together except the Swan under Doughty. They turned up the following day to meet a seething Drake where they had another quarrel, the former accusing him of witchcraft which he vehemently denied. Decisions were made regarding the fleet: Drake realised the need to condense his force due to losses sustained from disease and storms from the Atlantic crossing. The decision was made to scuttle Swan. The resultant loss of his command enraged Doughty. He confronted Drake who promptly lost his temper, struck Doughty and ordered him bound to the mast. It was decided that the ex-Spanish Christopher was no longer needed so was burned. Only the rigging and ironwork was kept.
Execution of Doughty
By 3 June both Doughty and his brother, John, who had been defending him, had been put under house arrest, and the sailors were forbidden from interacting with them. Drake accused Doughty of being "a conjurer and a seditious person," and his brother of being "a witch and a poisoner."
The English made landfall on the bay of San Julian, a natural harbour in Patagonia. Ferdinand Magellan had called in the same place half a century earlier, where he put to death some mutineers. Drake's men saw weathered and bleached skeletons on the grim Spanish gibbets and decided to remain in San Julian for the winter before attempting the Strait of Magellan.
Whilst in San Julian Drake finally made the decision to try Doughty with treachery and an incitement to mutiny. The main pieces of evidence against Doughty were the testimony of the ship's carpenter, Edward Bright, who after the trial was promoted to master of the ship Marigold, and Doughty's admission of telling Lord Burghley, a vocal opponent of agitating the Spanish, of the intent of the voyage. Drake consented to his request of Communion and dined with him along with Francis Fletcher who had this strange account:
And after this holy repast, they dined also at the same table together, as cheerfully, in sobriety, as ever in their lives they had done aforetime, each cheering up the other, and taking their leave, by drinking each to other, as if some journey only had been in hand.
The trial eventually found Doughty guilty, but only on the mutiny charge. On 2 July, at Drake's insistence, Doughty was beheaded, but this stern example did not have the desired effect. Drake held up his severed head and stated, 'behold the head of a traitor'. Increasing tensions between mariners and the gentlemen explorers brought the prospect of mutiny and this would last nearly a month. Drake went one step further and used a sermon to make a speech laying down rules of conduct, with himself in sole command. The effect on the assembled crew was powerful and from then mutiny was never on the mind of anyone.
After attempts to repair Mary it was discovered that she had rotting timbers, so they broke up the ship for parts. In August they set off sailing West and then went on an attempt to pass through the Strait of Magellan.