Sir+Francis+Drake

Sir Francis Drake

By Tom Kelly, Lachie Milligan and Daniel Le Souef

//**Overview**//

//**In the lifetime of Sir Francis Drake he had accomplished many great things, such as expedtions against the Spanish, circumnavigation of the world and the defeat of the Spanish Amarda off the southern coast of England. Drake became so powerful that Queen Victoria chose him as one of her faviourite sailors for battle along with his spanish enemy despising him so much that he was known as 'El Draque' or 'The Dragon'.**//

//Portrait of Sir Francis Drake// Early Life Sir Francis Drake was born in 1540 (No Specific Date) in a small cottage in Tavistok, England. When he was 8 or 9 Sir Francis Drake and his family were forced to move away to Chatham in Kent and lived in an old ship because of violence and riots when King Edward VI said that the Bible should be writin in English instead of Latin.Sir Francis Drake was son of a farmer and preacher and was also the eldest of 12 sons. Sir Francis Drakes father Edmund Drake may have been a sailor but historians also believe that he could of worked on the family farm, Edmund Drake was a protestant and people believe that Edmund died of Religous Persecution. The Drake family moved to Kent a nd lived in the hulk of an old ship, reasons of the family moving there is still unknown. As a result of his family moving to Kent he now lived by the sea and frequently met and talked to sailors, seaman and people who have travelled on the sea, Francis was fascinated by all the stories and tales that were told to him by the seamen which is one of the possible reasons on why he was motivated to travel on the sea.

__Sir Francis Drake's Voyages __ Drake began his voyages with another famed English sailor, John Hawkins, in 1562. These two men were on profiting travel by selling smuggled goods to Spanish colonies including. They were playing a risky game because the Spanish king was losing precious sales tax revenues to the smugglers, and his authorities had orders to attack all English vessels in the Caribbean on sight.

On Hawkin's third voyage he ran out of luck. His fleet of six ships, one of which was commanded by his cousin Francis Drake, lay off the western tip of Cuba when a hurricane struck and drove them into the Gulf of Mexico. The ships were so battered that they had no hope of returning to England without repairs. Hawkins needed supplies so he anchored his ships at Vera Cruz and sold goods for food drink and repairs.

Unfortunately for the English, the day after they arrived the Spanish had come to Vera Cruz to collect stores of gold and silver. The Spanish, who were by now far superior in naval strength, had no intention of letting there enemy the hated English smugglers escape. The Spanish planned an attack which then ended with only 2 of the 6 ships remaining. Luckly the 2 ships remaining were Hawkins and Drakes. The horror was not over yet for John Hawkin when he had to deal with thirst and starvation of him and the crew on the return to england.

After gaining experince through the past 5 years as a sailor he went on another yet another expedtion to discover the new world, he joined with Hawkins again for this task. During this expedtion him and many englishmen were ambushed/trapped by the spanish fleet and this battle then ended up with the death of 500 englishmen.

On the 24th of May in 1572 Francis Drake sailed from England with two small ships and 73 men towards the Spanish held town of Nombre de Dios. After making it through the Atlantic easily the small fleet made a few stops, finally taking anchor at a uninhabited island called the Isle of Pines off the Spanish coast of Panama in mid-July. From this island Drake began preparations for his attacks against the Spanish. Drake's plan was to sack the city of Nombre de Dios, in the city there was a treasure fleet called Tierra Firme making port, this fleet had gold and silver mined in the South American mountains. To aid him in his plan he had to bring small pinnaces (small, shallow draft sailing vessels) from England in the hold of his ships disassembled. The pinnaces were quickly built and made seaworthy within a few days. The sailing vessels were then loaded with muskets, pikes, powder and other weapons.

The next part of the journey was travelled in the pinnaces so a few men were left to watch the two ships. Using the pinnaces shallow draft to his advantage, he hugged the Panamanian coastline, while travelling down the coastline drake only took one stop to teach his men the attack plan. Sailing further he soon reached the Francisco River, where he turned inshore and dropped anchor until dark at which point they sailed to Nombre de Dios under the pale light of the moon.

The pinnaces glided into the dark harbour and Drake then split the group in to two parties,one led by himself, and the other led by his brother, John (not John Hawkins). The Spanish then spotted the invaders and church bells rang in warning as the local militia poured out of their houses with muskets and swords in hand. The English small on numbers used drums, trumpets, and flaming firepikes to raise a stir and make it look like there was a much larger party. Francis Drake's group reached the town first and entered on to the marketplace.Here they were met by the Spanish which killed and wounded several men including Drake himself who suffered a wound to the leg. However the second party of English then entered the other side of town and this broke the morale of the Spanish defenders. The Spanish quickly fled, leaving the town to the invaders. Drake led the men to the governor's house where they found a lot of silver bars. Drake then promised his men they would find still more treasure more than their ships could carry in the King's storehouse. Before they reached the king's storehouse Drake fainted from loss of blood in his leg, his men then panicked thinking of a Spanish counterattack and left empty hand his men, fearing a Spanish counter attack, suddenly panicked. They grabbed their fallen leader and fled with nearly no loot.

Drake only just escaped on a ship named the Judith. After returning to his larger boats Drake first recovered and then planned an attack at Cartagena, but he backed out when the whole coast had heard word of his presence. His group retreated to San Bernado were he abandoned one of his two larger ships since he had too few men to crew both of the larger ships and the three pinnaces, and sailed further south into the Gulf of Darien where he established a small base from which he would hereafter operate. It was here on the coast of Darien that Drake began to receive help from escaped black slaves who lived in loose tribes throughout the jungle. These former slaves, known as Cimaroons, were performing hit and run against the Spanish. They were happy to exchange their labour and knowledge to the English in exchange for weapons, clothing, utensils, shoes. Cimaroons were to prove crucial in keeping Drake and his men alive, and providing valuable intelligence. His men and the Cimaroons then made small houses and raided small villages for supplies. Drake was then plotting to capture the 'Silver Train' which carried a large sum of gold and silver to Nobre de Dios every year. After some planning and movements futher from the location they finnaly made an attack and won this time though with support from french and the Cimaroons.The loot was divided and the Frenchmen took their leave. together the raiding party had taken silver and gold valued at nearly two hundred thousand pieces of eight. It was a very rich haul, and the beginning of a glorious career for Francis Drake. On 9th August 1573, Drake and thirty English survivors returned to England as very wealthy men. Along with the money reward Drake returned with the Nuestra Senora DeLa Concepcion nicknamed Cacafuego in 1579 March 1, 2 years after he first left.

Drake returned to the new world and carried out assaults on many different areas, one of his biggest and largest defeat of these was his assault on Cartagena in 1586. His death was caused by fever when he was on a trip in the carribbean in search of Spanish loot.

Sir Francis Drake's Circum-navigation of the World >
 * First englishman to sail around the world.
 * He did it in the ship the Golden Hind.
 * it took him 3 years.
 * it was done from 1577 to 1580.
 * Drake discovers the upper coast of California and names it New Albion. He stops in the vicinity San Francisco Bay to make friendly contact with the natives of the area-1579 June to July
 * Drake sails across the Pacific-1579 July 23
 * Drake sights land in Phillipines-1579 October 16
 * Lands at Ternate in the East Indies and makes a treaty with the sultan and buys a cargo of clothes-1579 November 3
 * Drake sails to Java across the indian ocean and around the cape of good hope and then arrives back in plymouth-1580 January to Semptember 26
 * Francis Drake is then knighted by Queen Elizabeth-1581