Pages of history. Page three (continued).

About piracy and pirates.(part 2)

Drake began his pirate adventures in 1567, when he was 26 years old. But from his youth he joined the Hawkins expedition and participated in pirate voyages. On May 24, 1572, Drake set sail from Plymouth aboard his own ship, the Savant. He assigned his younger brother John to command another ship called "Pasha". During this and subsequent voyages, Drake carried out pirate activities in the waters of the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Cuba and the island of Pinos (now Isle of Juventud). After countless "exploits" at sea, Drake returned to England on November 3, 1580. Queen Elizabeth showered the pirate with honors and handed him a sword with the inscription: “If you are hit, Drake, it means we have been hit.” The Queen grants him the title of Sir and makes him a Member of Parliament and an Admiral of the British Navy.

And all this is deserved. After all, he returned in the fall of 1580 not just from another pirate voyage, but from a trip around the world.

Francis Drake's trip around the world.

No one instructed Drake to travel around the world, and he himself did not plan such a voyage. As often happened in that era, many geographical discoveries were made by chance, due to unforeseen circumstances. For Francis Drake, it turned out almost like the saying: there would have been no happiness, but misfortune helped. Let us remind readers how it all happened.

In the fall of 1577, Drake, with the help of influential patrons, including Queen Elizabeth herself, managed to prepare a pirate expedition to the western, Pacific, coast of South America. The idea of the campaign was brilliantly simple: on the west coast of America, the Spaniards did not expect an attack either from land or, especially, from the sea. Therefore, you can plunder their ships and coastal settlements with almost impunity.

At the end of 1577, Drake's flotilla, consisting of four large ships, left Plymouth. In April 1578, pirates reached the mouth of the La Plati River. After a brief stop, they went south along the coast of Patagonia - the vast region of modern Agrentina, which extends south from the bed of the Rio Negro to the Strait of Magellan. In the south of Patagonia, in San Julian Bay, Drake's flotilla made a stop. It is known that Magellan wintered in this bay in June-October 1520.

After stopping in San Julian, Drake's flotilla continued sailing with three ships: one ship suffered a malfunction and was burned on Drake's orders. Soon the pirates entered the Strait of Magellan, the complex and winding channel of which was difficult to navigate in twenty days. The crew's sailors suffered greatly from the cold: July is the coldest month in the Southern Hemisphere. Finally they found themselves in the Pacific Ocean and headed north towards the tropics. But then a strong storm began. Of the three ships, one went missing, apparently crashed and sank in the ocean, while the other re-entered the Strait of Magellan and managed to return to England. There is only one Drake's flagship left, called the Golden Hind. The ship was carried far to the south. Drake saw that Tierra del Fuego ended here, and that a boundless ocean stretched to the south. So, essentially by accident, a geographical discovery was made: Tierra del Fuego is an island, but not part of the vast Unknown Land, as navigators had previously believed. The strait between South America and Antarctica was later called the Drake Passage.

Finally the ocean calmed down and the weather improved. Drake decided to continue the expedition and sent his now only ship north. The team, anticipating an imminent meeting with the subtropics, found a second wind. The hardships of traveling in the Tierra del Fuego region began to quickly be forgotten when, after the first attacks on Spanish ships, the holds of the Golden Hind began to be filled with gold and other valuables.

Unless absolutely necessary, Drake did not kill those he robbed. Therefore, Drake's pirate operations resulted in almost no casualties among his crew. Drake established almost friendly relations with the Chilean Indians. Rich booty, availability of food and wine, as well as women from local Indian tribes were the pirates' reward for all the dangers and hardships they had previously experienced. Drake managed to capture a special Spanish galleon (see note), transporting gold and jewelry from the American colonies to the Spanish treasury. Not every pirate had such luck. There was nowhere to put the wealth anymore. I had to return home to England. But how? Drake, of course, could not know about the plans of the Spaniards, but as an experienced captain, he assumed that the Spanish ships, in order to destroy him, would go to meet him through the Strait of Magellan. And his assumption was absolutely correct. It was necessary to save yourself, the team and the looted precious cargo. And Drake went north along the west coast of America. The length of this path is amazing. From Tierra del Fuego he traveled by sea, of course with stops on the shore, along the entire coast of Chile, Peru, past the lands of Central America and Mexico, along the west coast of what is now the United States, reaching 48 degrees north latitude (the border with Canada). This path was no less than 20 thousand kilometers - after all, the ship did not travel strictly along the meridian, but skirted the shores of the continents of both Americas. The shore deviated further and further to the west. Drake, fleeing persecution, was probably ready to go around North America to get to the Atlantic Ocean. But this was impossible, because... he didn't know if such a way existed. There was no other way out, and Drake turned west, into the endless Pacific Ocean. Turning southwest, he reached the Mariana Islands three months later. After another one and a half to two months, his ship was already making its way between the islands of the Moluccas archipelago. In this area, Drake could have encountered Spanish or Portuguese warships, but he somehow managed to avoid such encounters.

The next stage of his voyage was also unique in its kind. Drake's ship from the island of Java headed across the Indian Ocean straight to the Cape of Good Hope. Having rounded the Cape of Good Hope, travelers moved north around the western coast of Africa, passed the Iberian Peninsula, entered the Bay of Biscay and arrived in Plymouth in early November 1580. The journey, which lasted almost three years, turned out to be around the world.

Francis Drake became the second captain after Ferdinand Magellan to circumnavigate the world. At the same time, Drake was much more successful than Magellan. It is known that Magellan was not destined to personally bring his ships to Portugal. He died in the Philippine Islands in a skirmish with the aborigines. The only one of the five ships of Magellan's flotilla, a year and a half after his death, was brought to Lisbon by the few surviving members of Magellan's crew.

In a long and dangerous voyage, Drake managed to save his life and the lives of most of the sailors of the crew of his flagship ship "Golden Hind" and personally brought this ship to the English port of Plymouth. The ship was carrying a large cargo of gold and other valuables.

Captain Drake from a simple pirate immediately turned into an admiral of the British fleet and received other honors from the Queen of England.

The wide strait between the island of Tierra del Fuego and the South Shetland Islands is named after the pirate Drake. To an ignorant person it may seem that this is some kind of historical curiosity or misunderstanding. But now that we know the circumstances of the case, we can say that everything is correct here, because Drake did a lot both for geographical science and for his homeland.

* * *

Several years passed, and Drake resumed his raids on America, but with a huge flotilla of corsairs, which numbered 30 ships and 2,300 soldiers and sailors. By order of Drake, soldiers level the city of Santo Domingo (on the island of Haiti), then besiege Cartagena (northern coast of Colombia), threatening this city with complete destruction. As a result, Drake receives 110 thousand ransom ducats (the ducat was a large monetary unit of that time). He returns to England with booty totaling 600 thousand pounds sterling.

During another raid on the Spanish colonies, Drake contracted dysentery and died. Like his teacher Hawkins, he was buried at sea with full honors. From the manuscripts left by Drake it is clear that everywhere, so to speak, without interruption from his main work - piracy, he was engaged in the natural sciences. The Portuguese pilot Nuno da Silva testifies that Drake had works by English, French and Spanish authors in his ship's library. He drew well. In his sketches he depicted birds, seals, trees, Indians and in general everything that attracted his attention during his travels.

After Drake's death, Thomas Baskerville took command of the expedition. Before returning to England, he brought his fleet to the island of Pinos (now Juventud) for repairs and rest. By this time, King Philip II of Spain had managed to send here a large naval squadron under the command of Bernandino Avellaneda, who was ordered to destroy the British. Baskerville took refuge in the Bay of Siguanea. But Baskerville's ships were discovered by Avelyanda. Avelyanda forced a fight on them. The British took up defensive positions and then tried to escape. As a result, only eight of the thirty ships that set sail from Plymouth in September 1595 reached England.

Francis Drake's report on the discoveries of the corsair, navigator, and vice-admiral of the English fleet is presented in this article.

Francis Drake discovered what?

He was the second person after and the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world in 1577-1580. Drake was a talented organizer and naval commander, the main figure in the English fleet, thanks to whom the Invincible Spanish Armada was defeated. For what Francis Drake did, Queen Elizabeth I of England knighted him: the navigator began to be called Sir Francis Drake.

In 1575, he was introduced to Queen Elizabeth I of England. She invited the pirate (Drake by that time had the reputation of a robber and slave trader) to enter public service. In addition, she, together with shareholders, financed his expedition to explore the eastern coast of South America. As a result, Francis Drake's journey not only "paid for itself" many times over, but also made geographical discoveries and important sea routes.

What did Francis Drake discover in 1577-1580?

Francis Drake, whose journey around the world began on November 15, 1577, consisting of 6 ships, descended to the southern part of the American continent. After passing through the Strait of Magellan, the team entered the waters of the Pacific Ocean. They were caught in a terrible storm, which threw the ships a little south of the islands of Tierra del Fuego. Francis Drake's expedition made a grand discovery - a route between the still undiscovered Antarctica and South America. Later it will be named after the traveler - Drake Passage.

All the ships were lost in the storm, leaving only one flagship, the Pelican. Francis Drake, after a miraculous rescue, renamed the ship the Golden Hind. On it, the captain sailed around the northern part of the western coast of South America, attacking and plundering Spanish ports along the way.

He reached the shores of modern Canada and California. This Pacific coast was then unexplored and considered wild land. Drake was the first European in history to stake new lands for the crown of England. Having replenished their supplies, the team headed west and sailed to the Spice Islands. Having rounded the Cape of Good Hope, the corsair returned home on September 26, 1580.

Drake, Francis
Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia

Sir Francis Drake (English Francis Drake; about 1540 - January 28, 1596) - English navigator and corsair of the times of Elizabeth I. The first Englishman to circumnavigate the world (in 1577-1580) defeated the Spanish fleet (Invincible Armada) in the Battle of Gravelines 1588 Owned the Buckland Abbey estate in Yelverton.

Biography

Childhood and youth
Francis Drake was born at Crowndale, near Tayvistoke, in Devonshire, the son of a farmer (father Edmund Drake), who later became a priest. In total, there were twelve children in the Drake family, Francis was the eldest. In 1549 the Drake family moved to Kent. At the age of 13 he became a sailor, was an assistant captain, and at the age of 16 he took command of a ship - a small barque. The first voyages were in the North Sea.

Adulthood
In 1567 he set sail to Guinea and the West Indies, commanding a ship on the slave trading expedition of his relative John Hawkins. During this expedition, the British ships were attacked by the Spaniards, and most of them were sunk. According to various sources, from one (Drake's ship) to three ships survived.

In 1572, he went on his own expedition to the Spanish possessions in the West Indies, captured the city of Nombre de Diaz on the Isthmus of Panama, captured ships in the harbor of Cartagena, and burned Portobello. During this raid, Drake crossed the Isthmus of Panama several times overland and captured the Spanish "Silver Caravan" (about 30 tons of silver). On August 9, 1573, Drake returned to Plymouth famous.

On November 15, 1577, Drake was sent by Queen Elizabeth on an expedition to the Pacific coast of America. The official purpose of the trip was to discover new lands, in particular Australia. In fact, Drake was supposed to loot as much Spanish gold as possible and return to England with this cargo. Francis set out on this journey on the 100-ton flagship Pelican, which was accompanied by four other ships. Without entering the Strait of Magellan, Drake was the first to bypass Tierra del Fuego, thereby finding out that it was not part of the southern continent (although Drake's primacy is disputed).

After the flagship “Pelican” was the only one of all the ships that “made its way” to the Pacific Ocean, it was renamed the “Golden Hind”. Drake sailed along the Pacific coast, attacking Spanish ports such as Valparaiso, and explored the coast well north of the Spanish colonies, to approximately modern Vancouver. On June 17, 1579, Drake allegedly landed in the San Francisco area (according to another hypothesis, in modern Oregon) and declared this coast an English possession (“New Albion”).

After replenishing provisions and repairs, Drake crossed the Pacific Ocean and reached the Moluccas. Having circumnavigated Africa, Drake returned to England on September 26, 1580, bringing treasures worth 600,000 pounds. For this expedition Drake was awarded a knighthood. In 1588, he was one of the English admirals who defeated the Spanish "Invincible Armada". After this, Drake suggested that Elizabeth I of England attack Lisbon. The English, led by Drake, would have captured Lisbon, but he had no siege engines. After this he lost the queen's favor. Died of dysentery, at dawn, January 28, 1596.

Drake and the World Map
Drake is also famous in geography. The strait between Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica is named after him.

WITH

mid-16th century Numerous pirates appeared on the Spanish Atlantic routes, not only French, but also English, Dutch, and Danish. The Lesser Antilles became their pirate bases; individual islands constantly changed hands, from pirates of one nationality to another. They hunted mainly for ships loaded with precious metals on the routes from the coasts of Mexico and Central America to Spain. But they did not disdain the slave trade from West Africa. Among these highway robbers and slave traders was the Englishman John Hawkins, future participant in the defeat of the “Invincible Armada” (1588), later admiral; in Spanish chronicles he appeared under the name Juan Aquines. In October 1567, his ship was wrecked off the western coast of Florida. 114 sailors, among whom was David Ingram, moved north on foot, rightly fearing the Spaniards and hoping that much further north, on the Atlantic coast of the mainland, they would be able to meet some ship. They walked along the Atlantic lowland, crossing numerous small and relatively large rivers on Indian canoes, including the Potomac, Susquehanna and Hudson. During the campaign, most of the pirate travelers died: probably some remained to live among the Indians; only D. Ingram and his two companions, having overcome in about two years Ingram claimed that the entire journey took 11 months - most likely, he only took into account the time spent on the move. 2500 km in a straight line (actually more), we reached the island. Cape Breton, where they were picked up by a French ship.

After a safe return to his homeland, Ingram began talking about his wanderings around the trans-Atlantic country over drinks and snacks. Listeners were amazed at his “fables” about a huge gray bear (grizzly), did not believe his “tales” about a bird that cannot fly (the great auk), were surprised at the “tales” about another bird - a flamingo with bright red feathers, and questioned the existence of an animal similar to a horse, but with antlers (moose), and eagerly listened to his messages about the numerous fictitious cities of the country, about its mythical riches - gold, silver and pearls. But it was not this fantasy, but a truthful description of some representatives of the animal world of North America that earned Ingram the reputation of a liar. He remained in a large international “family” of liars-travelers for almost 400 years: only in the middle of our century was he “rehabilitated.” However, among his contemporaries there were still people who understood that there was some truth in his stories. The Minister of the British Secret Police belonged to them. Probably, the information reported by Ingram during interrogation (August - September 1582) prompted the government of Queen Elizabeth to send the expedition of Hrmfrey Gilbert to the North American shores.

Among the pirates who enjoyed the patronage of the English crown, an Englishman stood out Francis Drake, which, in the words of the Viceroy of Peru, opened “the path to the Pacific Ocean for all heretics - Huguenots, Calvinists, Lutherans and other robbers...”.

“The Iron Pirate,” as he was later called, was a powerful and tough man, with a furious character, suspicious and superstitious, even for his age. Once, during a storm, he shouted that it was sent by his enemy, who was on the ship, that he was “a sorcerer, and all this comes from his chest.” Drake, as a pirate, acted not at his own peril and risk, but as a “clerk” of a large “share company”, one of the shareholders of which was Queen Elizabeth of England. She equipped the ships at her own expense, shared the booty with the pirates, but took the lion's share of the profits for herself. Drake received his baptism of fire in 1567 - 1568. in the flotilla of the pirate John Hawkins, who captured Spanish cities in Central America in order to trade duty-free blacks with Spanish planters. This raid ended with five ships falling into the hands of the Spaniards and only one - under the command of Drake - returning to England. Four years later, Drake independently raided the Isthmus of Panama, plundered a caravan with precious metals from Peru, and arrived home on captured brand new Spanish ships.

In 1577 Drake began the most important of his enterprises, which unexpectedly There is, however, another opinion: F. Drake planned a trip around the world in advance, intending to discover a section of the Southern continent, open the Strait of Anian, establish English control over American lands not under Spanish domination, study the geography of the Pacific Ocean, and upon reaching the Moluccas, capture any “free” islands and establish trade relations with China and Japan. for him, it ended with a circumnavigation of the world. The pirate's goal was to raid the Pacific coast of Spanish America. The Queen and a number of English nobles again supported the enterprise with their own funds, demanding only that the pirate keep their names secret. Drake equipped four ships with a capacity of 90 - 100 tons, not counting two pinnaces (small auxiliary ships), and on December 13, 1577, he left Plymouth. In April 1578, the pirates reached the mouth of La Plata and, slowly moving south, discovered a convenient harbor off the coast of Patagonia (at 47° 45" S). One of Drake's companions characterizes the Patagonians as follows: “They turned out to be good-natured people and showed such compassionate sympathy for us as we had never seen among Christians. They brought us food and seemed happy to please us.” According to him, the Patagonians are really “distinguished by their height, their thick build, the strength and loudness of their voices.” are not at all such monsters as the Spaniards talked about them: there are Englishmen who are not inferior in height to the tallest of them...”

On June 20, the pirates stopped in the same San Julian Bay where Magellan spent the winter. It was here that Drake, clearly imitating the great Portuguese, accused the officer Thomas Doughty of conspiracy and executed him. On August 17, the pirates left the bay. Drake's flotilla was reduced to three ships: at the end of May, he ordered the tackle and all iron parts to be removed from one dilapidated ship, and the skeleton to be burned. Four days later, the British entered the Strait of Magellan and with great caution advanced in sight of both shores, which were gradually approaching each other. On the coast there were wandering inhabitants who took refuge from the weather in miserable huts. “But for rude savages, their utensils seemed to us very skillfully and even elegantly crafted,” writes Drake’s companion priest Francis Fletcher.- Their shuttles are made of bark, not tarred or caulked, but only sewn at the seams with strips of sealskin, but so neatly and tightly that they do not leak. Their cups and buckets are also made from bark. The knives are made from huge shells: after breaking off the edges, they sharpen them on stone to... the required sharpness.”

The journey through the strait “with its nights as black as hell and the merciless fury of violent storms” lasted two and a half weeks. “No sooner had we entered this sea... which turned out to be Mad for us, than such a furious storm began, which we had never experienced before... [during the day] we did not see sunlight, and at night - neither the moon nor the stars. At times, mountains were visible not far away... then they disappeared from view... We lost our comrades.” One ship of Drake's flotilla went missing, the other, a month later, thrown back into the Strait of Magellan by a storm, got out into the Atlantic Ocean and returned to England.

The storm lasted 52 days until the end of October. During the entire period there were only two days of respite. “And suddenly everything seemed to go away: the mountains took on a benevolent appearance, the heavens smiled, the sea was calm, but the people were exhausted and needed rest.” The lonely ship “Golden Hind” (100–120 tons) was blown south by a storm almost five degrees in two months. On October 24, the sailors spotted the “most extreme” island to the south and stood there until November 1; “behind it in a southern direction neither the mainland nor the island was visible, only the Atlantic Ocean and the South Sea met in ... free space.” But Drake was mistaken: the little o. Henderson (55° 36" S, 69° 05" W) is located 120 km northwest of Cape Horn.

The discovery of a free expanse of water gave Drake the opportunity to prove that Tierra del Fuego, or the “Unknown Land” (Terra Incognita), was not at all a protrusion of the Southern continent, but an archipelago, beyond which stretched a seemingly boundless sea. The true southern continent, Antarctica, lies 1000 km south of Tierra del Fuego. In the 19th century, after the discovery of Antarctica, the wide passage between it and Tierra del Fuego was called the Drake Passage, although it should more rightly be called the Oses Strait. (See chapter 19)

At these southern latitudes, faced with terrible winds and storms, Drake was unable to move west to fulfill one of the instructions - to discover the coast of the Southern Continent. And then he headed north, hoping to connect with the missing ships of his squadron, as previously established, in Valparaiso.

On November 25, the “Golden Hind” anchored off Fr. Chiloe, inhabited by Araucan Indians; "fleeing from the mainland due to the cruelty of the Spaniards." They rightly did not trust the Europeans and, when Drake and 10 armed sailors landed on the shore, they forced him to leave, killing two Englishmen. But further north on the mainland, the Indians greeted the newcomers friendly and gave them a pilot to Valparaiso. Drake sacked the city and captured a Spanish ship in the harbor with a cargo of wine and “...some gold.”

The pirate moved further north. On the Spanish maps that fell into the hands of the British, the Chilean coast had a northwest direction, but whenever Drake turned northwest, he lost sight of it. It turned out that the entire coast of Chile stretches mainly from south to north. Only near Peru the coast actually turned to the northwest: Drake “cut off” hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of non-existent territory. After his voyage, the outline of South America on maps took on more regular, familiar shapes. In Bahia Salada Bay (at 27° 30" S) Drake stood for a month, repairing the Golden Hind and waiting in vain for the other two ships.

Beyond the Southern Tropic, the pirate approached the ports through which the Spaniards sent Peruvian silver to Panama. The Spaniards felt completely safe there, both on land and at sea, and transported valuable cargo without security. A number of such cargoes easily passed into the hands of Drake. In Callao (port of Lima) there were 30 Spanish ships in the roadstead, several of them well armed. And Drake brought the Golden Hind into the harbor and stood there all night among the enemies. Sailors on neighboring ships were talking loudly about the ships that had recently sailed to Panama. On the morning of February 14, 1579, Drake weighed anchor, caught up with one ship that particularly interested him and boarded it: there was a rich cargo of gold and silver, the counting of which lasted six days.

returning through the Strait of Magellan was dangerous: Drake was afraid that the Spaniards were waiting for him there, Indeed, several warships were sent there. and decided to return home around North America. He put the Golden Hind in order, stocked up on fuel and water, and moved northwest, along the Pacific coast of Mexico. There he did not attack port cities, but only plundered villages. From Mexico he went further north.

When the British rose to 42° N in June. sh., they experienced a sudden transition from heat to cold: wet snow fell, the gear became icy, and squalls often came. In calm weather, thick fogs came in, making it necessary to stand still. For two weeks it was impossible to determine the position of the ship either by the sun or by the stars.

“When we approached the shore, we saw bare trees and land without grass, and this was in June and July... The shore invariably deviated to the northwest, as if it was heading to connect with the Asian continent... We saw no traces anywhere Strait... Then it was decided to descend to warmer latitudes: we were at 48°, and the ten degrees we passed brought us to a beautiful country with a mild climate.” The Pacific coast of North America begins to “constantly deviate to the northwest” near the island. Vancouver (beyond 48°N latitude). It is this parallel that Fletcher pointed out. In fact, there is a strait there - between the island. Vancouver and the mainland (Juan de Fuca). The British might not have noticed it because of the fog or because the storm at the time drove them too far from the coast, but it is much more likely that Drake only reached 42 - 43 ° N. w. (Cape Blanco). It is unlikely that such an experienced sailor as Drake could have made an error of five degrees in determining the latitude, but the fact is that due to bad weather it was precisely not possible to determine the position of the ship.

At 38° N. w. in the bay (now Drakes Bay) on June 17, 1579, the British landed and began repairing the ship, which took six weeks. Drake set up a camp and fortified it. The inhabitants (California Indians) approached the camp in groups, but did not show hostile intentions, but only looked at the newcomers with amazement. The English gave them gifts and tried to show with gestures that they were not gods and needed food and drink. Crowds of Indians began to gather near the camp - naked children, men, mostly naked, women wearing “skirts made of reeds, disheveled like tow, and deer skins on their shoulders.” They brought feathers and bags of tobacco to the pirates. One day, when the leader, his warriors in fur cloaks and a crowd of naked Indians with women and children came to the camp, the pirate decided that the moment had come to join the English possessions of the country he had discovered.

One Indian had a "scepter" made of ebony, three bone chains and a bag of tobacco. “...On behalf of the queen, Drake took into his hands a scepter and a wreath, and together the power over the entire country, calling it “New Albion,” for which there were two reasons: the white color of the coastal rocks and the desire to connect the country with our homeland, which once That's what it was called." Before sailing, Drake placed a pillar on the shore. On a copper plate nailed to the post were carved Elizabeth's name, the dates of the English arrival in the country and the "voluntary submission" of its inhabitants to the queen. Below, the pirate inserted a silver coin with the image of the Queen and her coat of arms and carved his name (the plate was discovered in 1923, lost and found again in 1926).

Drake decided to go from New Albion across the Pacific Ocean to the Moluccas. At the end of July, on the Farallon Islands discovered by them (37° 45" N, 123° W), the British stocked up on provisions - sea lion meat, eggs and wild bird meat - and headed for the Mariana Islands. For 65 or 66 days the sailors saw nothing but sky and sea. At the end of September, land appeared in the distance - one of the Mariana Islands. But due to nasty winds, Drake only saw Moluccas in November. He stopped at Ternate, finding out that the ruler. The island was an enemy of the Portuguese. The British received a lot of provisions through it and moved on. South of Sulawesi, near an uninhabited island, the pirates stayed for a month: their ship needed repairs, and they themselves needed rest. Then the ship wandered for another month in the labyrinth of islands. shallows near the southern coast of Sulawesi, and almost died after running into a reef. At Java, the pirates learned that ships as large as the Golden Hind were standing nearby. Drake decided not to hesitate, not having the slightest desire to meet the Portuguese. headed straight for the Cape of Good Hope. The Golden Hind rounded the Cape in mid-1580, and on September 26, 1580, dropped anchor in Plymouth - 2 years 10 months after leaving England, completing her second circumnavigation of the world after the Spanish ship Victoria. And Drake took special credit for the fact that he was the first commander who not only began, but also completed a circumnavigation of the world.

Drake's pirate "raid" opened sea routes for English and Dutch ships, previously known only to the Spaniards and the Portuguese, In 1586–1588 The English pirate Thomas Cavendish circumnavigated the world, plundering several Peruvian cities along the way, in 1598–1601. - Dutch merchant pirate Oliver Van-Nort. and sharply worsened Anglo-Spanish relations. The Spanish ambassador to England demanded an exemplary punishment for the pirate and the return of the stolen property, which was estimated at several million gold rubles, but the English queen showered Drake with favors, gave him the title of baronet, openly walked with him in her garden and eagerly listened to stories about his adventures.

Elizabeth ordered the ambassador to answer that all valuables would be kept in her treasury until settlements were made between England and Spain regarding mutual claims. To inventory and seal the looted property, the queen sent an official with orders to give Drake the opportunity to “put everything in order” earlier. He, in his own words, “saw Her Majesty’s desire that the exact numbers should not be known to a single living soul.” Anglo-Spanish relations worsened even more in 1586, after Drake, already commanding an entire fleet of 25 ships, plundered several port cities in Haiti and off the southwestern shores of the Caribbean Sea.

Francis Drake was born in 1540 in the town of Tavistock, Devonshire, in the family of a poor village priest, Edmund Drake. Some sources claim that in his youth his father was a sailor. Francis's grandfather was a farmer who owned 180 acres of land. In total, there were twelve children in the Drake family, Francis was the eldest.

Francis left his parents' home early (presumably in 1550), joining a small merchant ship as a cabin boy, where he quickly mastered the art of navigation. Hardworking, persistent and calculating, he attracted the attention of the old captain, who had no family and who loved Francis as his own son and bequeathed his ship to Francis. As a merchant captain, Drake undertook several long voyages to the Bay of Biscay and Guinea, where he profitably engaged in the slave trade, supplying blacks to Haiti.

In 1567, Drake commanded a ship in the squadron of the then-famous John Hawkins, who plundered the coast of Mexico with the blessing of Queen Elizabeth I. The British were out of luck. When, after a terrible storm, they defended themselves in San Juan, they were attacked by a Spanish squadron. Only one ship out of six escaped the trap and, after a difficult voyage, reached its homeland. It was Drake's ship...

In 1569 he married a girl named Mary Newman. The marriage turned out to be childless. Mary died twelve years later.

Soon after this, Drake made two exploratory voyages across the ocean, and in 1572 he organized an independent expedition and made a very successful raid on the Isthmus of Panama.

Flagship "Pelican"

Soon, among the far from good-natured pirates and slave traders, young Drake began to stand out as the most cruel and the luckiest. According to contemporaries, “he was a powerful and irritable man with a furious character,” greedy, vindictive and extremely superstitious. At the same time, many historians claim that he undertook risky voyages not only for the sake of gold and honors, but that he was attracted by the very opportunity to go where no Englishman had ever been. In any case, geographers and sailors of the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries owe it to this man for many important clarifications of the world map.

After Drake distinguished himself in suppressing the Irish rebellion, he was presented to Queen Elizabeth and outlined his plan to raid and devastate the western shores of South America. Along with the rank of rear admiral, Drake received five ships with a crew of one hundred and sixty selected sailors. The Queen set one condition: that the names of all those noble gentlemen who, like her, gave money to equip the expedition, remain secret.

Drake managed to hide the expedition's true goals from Spanish spies by spreading the rumor that he was heading to Alexandria. As a result of this misinformation, the Spanish ambassador in London, Don Bernandino Mendoza, did not take measures to block the pirate's path to the Western Hemisphere.

On December 13, 1577, the flotilla - the flagship Pelican, Elizabeth, Sea Gold, Swan and the galley Christopher - left Plymouth.

Drake's cabin was decorated and furnished with great luxury. The utensils he used were made of pure silver. While eating, musicians delighted his ears with their playing, and a page stood behind Drake’s chair. The Queen sent him gifts of incense, sweets, an embroidered sea cap and a green silk scarf with the words embroidered in gold: “May God always protect and guide you.”

In the second half of January, the ships reached Mogadar, a port city in Morocco. Having taken hostages, the pirates exchanged them for a caravan of all kinds of goods. Then came a rush across the Atlantic Ocean. Having plundered the Spanish harbors at the mouth of La Plata along the way, the flotilla anchored in San Julian Bay on June 3, 1578, where Magellan dealt with the rebels. Some kind of fate weighed on this harbor, for Drake also had to suppress the outbreak of a mutiny, as a result of which Captain Doughty was executed. By the way, at the same time “Pelican” was renamed “Golden Hind”.

On August 2, having abandoned two vessels that had become completely unusable, the flotilla (Golden Hind, Elizabeth and Sea Gold) entered the Strait of Magellan and passed it in 20 days. After leaving the strait, the ships were caught in a fierce storm, which scattered them in different directions. "Sea Gold" was lost, "Elizabeth" was thrown back to the Strait of Magellan and, having passed it, he returned to England, and "Golden Hind", on which Drake was, was carried far to the south. At the same time, Drake made the involuntary discovery that Tierra del Fuego was not a protrusion of the Southern continent, as was believed at that time, but an archipelago, beyond which the open sea stretched. In honor of the discoverer, the strait between Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica was named after Drake.

As soon as the storm passed, Drake headed north and entered Valparaiso Harbor on December 5th. Having captured a ship in the harbor loaded with wines and gold bars worth 37 thousand ducats, the pirates landed on shore and plundered the city, taking a cargo of gold sand worth 25 thousand pesos.

In addition, they found secret Spanish maps on the ship, and now Drake was not moving forward blindly. It must be said that before Drake’s pirate raid, the Spaniards felt completely safe on the west coast of America - after all, not a single English ship passed through the Strait of Magellan, and therefore the Spanish ships in this area had no security, and the cities were not prepared to repel the pirates. Walking along the coast of America, Drake captured and plundered many Spanish cities and settlements, including Callao, Santo, Trujillo, and Manta. In Panamanian waters, he overtook the ship "Carafuego", on which a cargo of fabulous value was taken - gold and silver bars and coins worth 363 thousand pesos (about 1600 kg of gold). In the Mexican harbor of Acapulco, Drake captured a galleon loaded with spices and Chinese silk.

Then Drake, having deceived all the hopes of his enemies, did not turn back to the south, but crossed the Pacific Ocean and reached the Mariana Islands. Having repaired the ship in the Celebes area, he set course for the Cape of Good Hope and on September 26, 1580, dropped anchor in Plymouth, completing his second circumnavigation of the world after Magellan.

Map of Francis Drake's trip around the world

It was the most profitable voyage ever undertaken, with a return of 4,700%, about £500,000! To imagine the enormity of this sum, it is enough to compare two figures: the military operations to defeat the Spanish “Invincible Armada” in 1588 cost England “only” 160 thousand pounds, and the annual income of the English treasury at that time was 300 thousand pounds. Queen Elizabeth visited Drake's ship and knighted him right on deck, which was a great reward - there were only 300 people in England who had this title!

The Spanish King Philip II demanded punishment for the pirate Drake, reparations and an apology. Elizabeth's royal council limited itself to a vague answer that the Spanish king had no moral right “to prevent the English from visiting the Indies, and therefore the latter can travel there, running the risk of being captured there, but if they return without harm to themselves, His Majesty cannot ask Her Majesty to punish them..."

In 1585 Drake remarried. This time it was a girl of a rather rich and noble family - Elizabeth Sydenham. The couple moved to the Buckland Abbey estate, which Drake had recently purchased. Today there is a large monument there in honor of Drake. But, as in his first marriage, Drake had no children.

In 1585-1586, Sir Francis Drake again commanded an armed English fleet directed against the Spanish colonies of the West Indies, and, just like the last time, returned with rich booty. For the first time, Drake commanded such a large formation: he had 21 ships with 2,300 soldiers and sailors under his command.

It was thanks to Drake's energetic actions that the Invincible Armada's departure to sea was delayed for a year, which allowed England to better prepare for hostilities with Spain. Not bad for one person! And it happened like this: on April 19, 1587, Drake, commanding a squadron of 13 small ships, entered the harbor of Cadiz, where the Armada ships were preparing to sail. Of the 60 ships in the roadstead, he destroyed 30, and captured some of the remaining ones and took them with him, including a huge galleon.

In 1588, Sir Francis had a heavy hand in the complete defeat of the Invincible Armada. Unfortunately, this was the zenith of his fame. An expedition to Lisbon in 1589 ended in failure and cost him the favor and favor of the queen. He was unable to take the city, and out of 16 thousand people only 6 thousand remained alive. In addition, the royal treasury suffered losses, and the queen had a very bad attitude towards such issues. It seems that Drake's happiness has left him, and the next expedition to the shores of America for new treasures has already cost him his life.

Everything on this last voyage was unsuccessful: at the landing sites it turned out that the Spaniards had been warned and were ready to fight back, there was no treasure, and the British suffered constant losses of people not only in battles, but also from disease. The admiral also fell ill with tropical fever. Feeling the approach of death, Drake got out of bed, got dressed with great difficulty, and asked his servant to help him put on armor in order to die like a warrior. At dawn on January 28, 1596, he was gone. A few hours later the squadron approached Nombre de Dios. The new commander, Thomas Baskerville, ordered that Sir Francis Drake's body be placed in a lead coffin and lowered into the sea with military honors.

Since Sir Francis Drake had no children to inherit his title, it was given to his nephew, also named Francis. At the time it seemed like a curiosity of fate, but later it became the cause of many incidents and misunderstandings.