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In the 1560s and '70s Protestant England, under Queen Elizabeth... was the bitter rival
of Philip II's Catholic Spain. Philip ruled over a vast New World empire,
that produced a fortune in gold and silver for the Spanish treasury.
The English looked on with envy.
Though England and Spain weren't technically at war, Elizabeth secretly supported English
pirates and smugglers who set out to get rich at Spain's expense.
Amongst them, Francis Drake.
Drake had made several voyages to Spain's New World empire, where he'd sold African
slaves, and raided ships and settlements. In Panama, he'd climbed a tree to get a view
of the Pacific Ocean – and dreamed of becoming the first Englishman to sail it.
His chance came in 1577, when the Queen entrusted him with a secret mission: to raid the Spanish
empire's Pacific coast.
On 13th December, Drake sailed for the New World with 5 ships and 164 men.
En route, Drake's fleet captured several Spanish and Portuguese ships, as well as a Portuguese
navigator, who knew the South American coast, and became their guide.
After a rough crossing of the Atlantic, and 63 days without sight of land, Drake reached
the coast of Brazil.
He struggled south in heavy seas to reach Puerto San Julian by June.
Here he decided to wait out the winter storms.
58 years before, Magellan, leader of the first and, at that time, only expedition to sail
around the world, had wintered at the exact same place.
Drake's crew even found grisly remains of the men Magellan had had executed here for
mutiny.
By coincidence, Drake also put on trial one of his leading officers here, Thomas Doughty,
and found him guilty of trying to sabotage the expedition – he too was executed.
Drake, by now down to just three ships, continued south. He made a smooth passage of the Magellan
Strait in just 16 days... during which he renamed the Pelican, his flagship, the Golden
Hind – a tribute to Sir Christopher Hatton, one of the expedition's sponsors, and his
coat of arms.
In September Drake and his men became the first Englishmen to reach the Pacific... where
they were met by 52 days of hurricane winds and mountainous seas, driving them south.
One ship, the Marigold, was lost with all hands. Another, the Elizabeth, sailed back
through the strait and fled for home. Only the Golden Hind was left, driven south towards
Cape Horn, and into the world's roughest seas.
Europeans believed a 'Great Southern Continent' lay in this region, but Drake saw only more
ocean. There was no southern continent here – but there was an open sea route around
the tip of America – one which would later bear his name.
The winds eventually eased, and Drake sailed north, hoping to barter for supplies with
local tribes on Mocha Island.
But they mistook Drake's men for the hated Spanish, and attacked: two of Drake's men
were killed, and he himself was badly wounded.
Despite this setback, Drake had now arrived at the Spanish Pacific coast – which was
virtually unguarded, and had received no warning of his approach.
It was the start of one of the greatest robbing sprees of all time.
First he hit the Spanish port of Valparaíso, where he took Chilean gold and wine.
Then Arica, where he seized 40 bars of silver.
At El Callao he robbed every ship in the harbour - but more valuable than any loot, he was
told that the Spanish treasure ship, Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, had sailed north
just 2 weeks before.
Drake set off in pursuit, and overtook the Spanish galleon off the coast of Ecuador...
The Spanish crew had no reason to fear an English pirate in the Pacific – such a thing
was unheard of.
So when the Golden Hind opened fire, they were taken completely by surprise, and quickly
surrendered.
In the galleon's hold, Drake's men found 36 kilos of gold, 26 tons of silver, 13 chests
of silver coin, jewels and a golden crucifix - a haul worth today around 60 million dollars.
The Golden Hind, using Peruvian silver for ballast, continued up the coast, stopping
off to raid Huatulco, in modern Mexico, for supplies.
For the last few months, Drake had been desperately hoping to rejoin the Marigold, unaware of
her destruction in the southern ocean.
Now he was forced to accept that the ship and his comrades were lost, and headed up
the Pacific coast, hoping to find a theoretical Northwest Passage, back to the Atlantic, and
England.
Drake may have sailed as far north as Vancouver Island, before giving up, and returning to
land in California, which he named Nova Albion – New Britain - and claimed on behalf of
Queen Elizabeth.
The English were welcomed by local Miwok native Americans – the English thought they were
being welcomed as gods, but it's possible that with their pale faces, they were instead
seen by the Miwok as ancient spirits returned from the dead.
Drake's men spent 5 weeks making repairs to the Golden Hind, because they knew there was
now only one way home...
The Spanish in South America were on high alert, and if a Northwest passage did exist,
Drake had failed to find it.
So he would sail west, across the vast Pacific Ocean, and circumnavigate the earth in order
to get home.
Drake set sail on 23rd July 1579. For 68 days, they had no sight of land, but then finally
reached Palau, and then the Philippines.
They sailed onto the Spice, or Maluku Islands, and added priceless cloves to a cargo that
was already worth a fortune.
But as the Golden Hind set off for home, disaster struck...
Beyond sight of land, in deep water, the ship suddenly hit a reef.. and stuck fast.
The sailors thought they were doomed. They threw cannon and some of their priceless cargo
overboard to lighten the ship, and prayed to God.
20 hours later, in what seemed to Drake's men a miracle, winds and tide lifted them
off the reef.
The Golden Hind continued to thread its way through the islands of Indonesia, and after
a two-week stop in Java, Drake set sail across the Indian Ocean. In June, he rounded the
Cape of Good Hope... and put in at Sierra Leone for fresh supplies...
Without further incident, he reached Plymouth on 26th September 1580, with 59 surviving
crew.
His cargo of gold, silver and spices made a fortune for Drake and the investors in his
voyage: their return was an estimated four thousand six hundred per cent.
Queen Elizabeth was one of those to profit handsomely from his success – and the following
year, had Drake knighted aboard the Golden Hind in London.
Drake's remarkable voyage made him the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. He
would go on to win even greater fame, with a leading role in the defeat of the Spanish
Armada 8 years later.
Sir Francis Drake today remains one of England's greatest naval heroes.
Drake's daring expedition is part of a story of human exploration that goes right back
into prehistory.
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This video was made with our friends at Simple History. Watch the other half of our exploration
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