The most successful corsair in history often took desperate risks. And he almost always won. What was that? Sober calculation or miracles of exceptional luck?

By the middle of the 16th century, an unusual situation had developed in the Atlantic - in the Caribbean Sea and off the coast of Europe. In just a few years, in these waters, which were previously dangerous only due to their storms, a new terrible danger appeared - pirates! And the English immediately began to play the first violin in this concert. Why them? England was late to the division of the American and Asian colonies. IN XVI century, the Spaniards and the Portuguese confidently settled there. So, become new conquistadors English men it was difficult. Where can a young, brave person go? strong guy, hungry for quick riches? Well, of course, into pirates! And given the fact that piracy was almost officially encouraged by the British government, maritime robbery literally became the national idea of ​​Britain.

And the most outstanding pirates became national heroes. Sir became such a specific hero Francis Drake – one of the greatest pirates that English soil has ever produced.

The most in-demand profession in England

Of course, at birth Drake was not any sir at all. This is then the queen , satisfied with the very profitable (for the treasury) activities of the pirate, will grant him a knighthood. And about 1540 when in the family of a Devonshire farmer Edmund Drake A boy was born, who was named Francis; no one could have imagined that he would become a sir, a vice admiral and a threat to the Spanish crown.

However, one should not consider the small English landowners (yeomen), from among whom the parents of the future pirate came, as representatives of the lowest classes. So, young Francis received a very good (for those times) education.

He could both read and write. And not only in English, but also in French. From his father, who in his declining years moved from “agricultural workers” to preachers, Drake inherited the art of persuasion - an indispensable quality for any leader (including the leader of sea robbers).

When Francis was still a teenager, his father apprenticed him to the skipper of a trading barge. It is unlikely that Drake Sr. dreamed of seeing his son as a robber. Rather, he wanted to provide the boy with guaranteed employment in adulthood. And in England the second half XVI century, the most popular professions turned out to be those that were somehow connected with the sea.

So Francis becomes a cabin boy on the ship. The ship is a merchant ship and sails only in coastal waters. It's not even a school yet, but kindergarten for every English sailor. But you must definitely go through it in order to step higher. And the school specifically for Francis was already serving John Hawkins - famous sailor of the Elizabethan era. Hawkins was eight years older than Drake. And most importantly, he was a nobleman with connections. Therefore, Hawkins quickly became an influential leader, and the son of commoners, Drake, at first only worked for him.

What was Drake doing at Hawkins' place? Oh, then it was the most popular (just emerging, but promising great prospects) business - slave trade!

The Slave Trade: The Young Sailor's School

So, if coastal (coastal) navigation was Drake's kindergarten, then the slave trading expeditions of John Hawkins became his school.

A quick-witted sailor with a well-spoken tongue, Drake quickly attracted the attention of his owner. A promising young man receives a bark for his command "Judith". Very quickly Drake becomes right hand John Hawkins.

However, in 1568 The growing Hawkins-Drake business suffered an unexpected fiasco. During the next visit to New World With a party of slaves, near the Mexican fortress of San Juan de Ulua, Hawkins' squadron was attacked by the Spaniards, who had long been suspicious of the visits of English ships to their colonies. Madrid believed that trade with the Spanish colonies, including slaves, should be carried out by Spanish merchants, and not by foreigners.

Abandoning the flagship with all its valuables, Hawkins managed to escape from the Spaniards on the light ship Mignon. Drake also escaped from the ring of Spanish ships on his Judith. The remaining English ships sank or were captured.

Outraged slave traders Drake and Hawkins arrived in England, where, through official channels, they demanded compensation from the Spanish king for the losses incurred as a result of such a blatant “violation of international law.” The fact that before its defeat, Hawkins’s squadron, in addition to the slave trade, also managed to plunder some coastal Mexican settlements, the plaintiffs modestly passed over in silence.

King of Spain Philip II , of course, ignored this complaint. Then Drake decided that " You shouldn’t expect favors from Spain, taking them from her is our task" Thus, it was no longer a slave trader who was born, but the pirate Drake...

Drake's first pirate raid

Drake's first pirate raid in 1572 glorified his name throughout England. Having equipped several ships partly with his own and partly with government funds, he set off for the Caribbean Sea. There, after a series of mediocre successes, a major success awaited Francis: the “Silver Fleet” of the Spanish crown...

Every year in the spring, a flotilla of dozens of ships sailed from the coast of America to Spain. She was carrying whole mountains of silver, mined at the famous Bolivian silver mines in Potosi. Therefore, this flotilla was nicknamed the “Silver Fleet”.
Of course, for Drake and his small squadron there was no question of capturing the entire “Silver Fleet”, which consisted of several dozen cargo and military (security) ships with a large and trained crew. But the fact is that the “Silver Fleet” was formed in Havana (the starting point of the trip to Spain).
Spanish ships arrived at the main port of Cuba from all over South and Central America, carrying silver and other valuables mined or plundered in the controlled territories. From these mini-squadrons the mighty “Silver Fleet” was later formed, the attack on which was discussed in in full force there was nothing to think about.

But Drake was just lucky to intercept such a Spanish mini-squadron transporting valuable cargo to Havana. The British production was colossal - 30 tons of silver. Drake returned to England as a rich man and a pirate famous throughout the country.

Pirate and Queen: Secret Additional Agreement

Drake's second foray was even more successful than the first. In November 1577 Drake went on an expedition to the Pacific coast of America. The squadron sailed with the full official support of the queen Elizabeth , which was convinced of the talents of the ambitious captain and the incredible profitability of such events for the treasury. However, formally the purpose of the trip was to discover new lands.

However, everyone understood that Drake was not going on a hike for educational purposes. A secret contract was attached to the official instructions, according to which the queen, at her own expense, equips Drake with a squadron of six ships, and in return he undertakes to hand over 50% of the valuables captured during the “voyage” to the royal treasury.

The results of the campaign exceeded all our wildest expectations. Drake walked along the Pacific coast with fire and sword, attacking Spanish cities and towns. But these were all trifles compared to the main prize - manila galleon. Every year, on the other side of the planet, a galleon set out from Manila (in the Spanish Philippines), which carried to the metropolis all the loot from these Asian islands for the whole year.

But go west through Indian Ocean, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the Spaniards were afraid. They feared (and quite rightly) Asian, Arab, African and, of course, European sea robbers, who were found in abundance in the waters of the Indian and Atlantic oceans.

Therefore, the Spaniards chose a different path. Head east, straight across the Pacific Ocean to the port of Acapulco in Spanish Mexico. There, the valuables of the Manila galleon were unloaded and transported overland to the opposite (Atlantic) coast, where they were again loaded onto ships and sent to Spain itself. This path was quite labor-intensive, but shorter and, most importantly, safer...

Yes, it was safer that way. They had already become accustomed to English pirates in the Caribbean and had military squadrons against them. But they have not yet been seen in the Pacific Ocean. And no serious protection was provided.

And so, having rounded South America through the Strait of Magellan, the Drake pirates broke into the operational (Pacific) space...

Defeated Leviathan

in spring 1579, approaching the harbor of the Mexican port of Acapulco (on the Pacific coast of Mexico), Drake saw the silhouette of a huge ship in the roadstead. It was the same Manila galleon!

This ship could not be confused with any other. The fact is that Spanish entrepreneurs, dissatisfied with competition with suppliers of inexpensive Asian products (primarily textiles), convinced the king to issue a special decree. It was decided that only one cargo ship per year could be sent from the Philippines to Spain. So Castilian weavers wanted to limit the influx of cheap Asian fabrics.

But Spanish traders and merchants in the Philippines found a way out. They began to build this one and only legal vessel of such a size that it could accommodate all the necessary goods at once. For its era it was truly a giant ship.

The sailing fleet had never seen such a hulk before. Some of the Manila monsters had a displacement of 2000 tons (for comparison: the largest ship in Drake's squadron did not even reach 300 tons). And Drake saw this leviathan in the harbor of Acapulco, where the galleon, apparently, had just arrived with its cargo.

Drake didn't hesitate. He had the element of surprise and a desperate team of thugs on his side. The Spaniards were taken by surprise; most of the team was on the shore. The resistance of the small guard was quickly broken. Countless treasures (and not only Chinese silk, but also spices, porcelain, and precious stones were brought from the Philippines) fell into the hands of pirates.

It should be noted that the Manila galleons at the time of Drake did not yet have cannons, so they could not give artillery repulse to the daring invaders. The Spaniards were used to calmly sailing across the Pacific Ocean, where there were no serious pirates. Why then guns?

However, after Drake's raid, and also after 1587 another British gentleman of luck, Thomas Cavendish , captured the Manila galleon "Saint Anne", the Spaniards have revised their maritime safety regulations. The Manila galleons were now equipped with cannons, and the military crew on the galleons was significantly increased. After these innovations, attack became a very problematic task.

But Drake was lucky. He was the first, which is why he hit such a fat jackpot.

"Golden Hind" brings two state budgets

When in September 1580, after a three-year absence, Drake's only surviving ship is his famous flagship "Golden Doe"- entered Plymouth Harbor, treasures worth £600,000 rested in the holds of the ship. This was twice the annual budget of the entire English kingdom!

Drake was greeted as a national hero. The Queen was delighted. In one fell swoop, dear Sir Francis (he became a sir because he was knighted immediately upon his return) brought her a fantastic gift. According to a secret additional agreement, the queen had the right to half of all the spoils, that is, in this case, 300,000 pounds sterling.

Drake's next, third, raid on the Spanish colonies was also effective. IN 1586 the pirate managed to get from Cartagena, one of the largest cities Spanish America, an unheard-of ransom of 107,000 gold pesos at the time. True, in order to achieve this impressive result, Drake first had to burn about a quarter of the city as a warning (which, by the way, pleased Queen Elizabeth, who was then thirsty for “Spanish blood”).

Then there was a daring raid on the Spanish coast itself (on Cadiz in 1587) in order, as the pirate captain himself jokingly put it, “to set the beard of the King of Spain on fire.”

Along the way, near the Azores, Drake captured the carrack "San Filipe", coming from India with a large cargo of gold, spices and silk (the booty was 114,000 pounds; the queen, as before, received her share).

And in 1588 Sir Francis Drake took an active part in the defeat of the Spanish Invincible Armada. In England it became national hero, and for the Spanish king he became the embodiment of universal evil.

Drake's Last Case

Drake made his last pirate expedition to the West Indies (America) in 1595-1596 in company with John Hawkins, a man to whom he owed much of his enchanting career.

Having gotten involved in the slave trade, John Hawkins also became a pirate. Although here he had to give up the palm to his former protégé (Drake), nevertheless, the Spaniards were in awe of his name. When starting yet another military action against hated England, the Spanish king was interested in the first thing: Where are Drake and Hawkins now, what are they doing, what are they doing? That is, the long absence of these gentlemen gives at least some hope for success.

But by the middle 1590s Hawkins felt guilty before the queen. On his previous expedition, he brought significantly less gold than he himself expected, and much less than the queen expected. For this, the 60-year-old sea wolf was given a real beating in the palace.

Wanting to justify himself, Hawkins wrote a letter of repentance to the queen, in the biblical spirit: they say, man proposes, but God disposes.

The pious queen this time (as every other time when it came to pounds sterling) did not heed the religious arguments of her ward. In her hearts, she said to those close to her:

“This fool went to sea as a warrior and returned as a priest!”

Hawkins realized that the Queen could not be won over by God-fearing rhetoric. Red Bess (Red Beth - Elizabeth's nickname) you need to give what she wants most, namely gold. For help, he turned to his old companion, Drake. By the way, the queen also cooled somewhat towards Francis. And all for the same reason: no new chests of gold have been received from him for a long time.

Two old friends decided to improve their reputation in the eyes of the royal court and set off on another expedition to the shores of Spanish America. Alas, this voyage was the last for both of them.

Hawkins died in November 1595 off the coast of Puerto Rico. And two months later, 28 January 1596, near Puer to Bello(now Portobelo in Panama) Francis Drake also died of dysentery.. The famous pirate was buried in the ocean in a lead coffin.

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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 his father was a sailor in his youth. Francis' grandfather was a farmer who owned 180 acres of land. Francis's mother was from the Milway family, but I could not find her name. In total, the Drake family had twelve children, 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, about whom I have been unable to find out anything. It is only known that the marriage turned out to be childless. Mary died twelve years later.

"Pelican" - the flagship of Francis Drake

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.

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 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 true goals expedition from Spanish spies, 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 with a displacement of 100 tons, Elizabeth (80 tons), Sea Gold (30 tons), Swan (50 tons) and the galley Christopher - left Plymouth .

In the time of Queen Elizabeth I, there were no official rules for measuring ships, and therefore the dimensions of Drake's ship do not match in different sources. By comparing the information, R. Hockel provides the following data: length between stems - 20.2 meters, maximum width - 5.6 meters, hold depth - 3.03 meters, side height: amidships - 4.8 meters, aft - 9.22 meters, in the bow - 6.47 meters; draft - 2.2 meters, mainmast height 19.95 meters. Armament - 18 guns, of which seven guns on each side and two on the forecastle and stern. In terms of the shape of the hull, the Pelican was a transitional type from a carrack to a galleon and was well suited for long sea voyages.

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.”

Drake's Assault on Cartagena (vintage engraving)

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”.

Reconstruction of the supposed appearance of the "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 not a protrusion of the southern continent, as was believed at that time, but an archipelago, beyond which the open sea stretches. 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 guards, 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 headed for the Cape of Good Hope and on September 26, 1580, dropped anchor in Plymouth, completing his second circumnavigation of the world after Magellan.

It was the most profitable voyage ever undertaken, with a return of 4,700%, about £500,000! To imagine the enormity of this amount, it is enough to provide two figures for comparison: fighting The defeat of 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!

Knighting of Francis Drake

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 has 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 from 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 military action. 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 with a displacement of 1,200 tons.

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.

Sir Francis Drake

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.

Contents 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 first sailed on coasting ships 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 place as captain of a ship in John Hawkins's squadron, which was engaged in the slave trade and delivered them from Africa to the Spanish colonies in the West Indies. The voyage of 1566–1567 ended unsuccessfully as the Spanish launched a treacherous attack on English shipping at 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 Navy Paymaster J. Hawkins and Captain F. Drake.

Travel around the world.

For several years, Drake carried out pirate raids in the Caribbean, which Spain considered its territory, captured Nombre de Dios in central Panama, and robbed caravans transporting silver loads on mules from Peru to Panama. His activities attracted the attention of Elizabeth I and a group of courtiers, including the Treasurer of State, Lord Burghley, and the Home Secretary, Francis Walsingham. Funds were raised for the expedition, which lasted from 1577 to 1580. The expedition was originally planned to search for the supposed Southern Continent, but it turned out - perhaps at the direction of the Queen (even though England and Spain were not yet at war) - the most successful in history a pirate raid that yielded a return of £47 for every pound invested.

Drake sailed as captain of the 100-ton ship Pelican (later renamed the Golden Hind). . In addition, there were four other smaller ships, which, however, never completed the voyage. After quelling a mutiny on a ship off the coast of Patagonia, 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 the strait between Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica that now bears his name (although he himself probably never saw Cape Horn). On his way north, he plundered ships and harbors off the coasts of Chile and Peru and seemed to intend to return through the supposed Northwest Passage. Somewhere in the latitude of Vancouver (no ship's logs have survived), due to bad weather, Drake was forced to turn south and anchor somewhat north of modern San Francisco. The site, which he named New Albion, was established in 1936 thanks to the discovery of a copper plate with the date June 17, 1579, approximately 50 km northwest of Golden Gate (now Drake Bay). The plate bears an inscription declaring this territory the possession of Queen Elizabeth. Drake then crossed the Pacific Ocean and reached the Moluccas Islands, after which he returned to England.

Drake sailed around the world, demonstrating his mastery of navigation. The Queen knighted him as the first captain to circumnavigate the world (Magellan's claim was disputed as he died during the voyage in 1521). The account of Drake's sea voyages, compiled by the ship's chaplain Francis Fletcher and published by Haklut, is still very popular. Having received his share of the spoils, 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 to the West Indies, which meant the beginning of open war with Spain. His skill in the tactics of combined sea and land operations allowed him 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 Roanoke River valley (Virginia). Thus, the first colony in America, founded by Walter Raleigh, which was not just a settlement, but also a strategic base for pirate raids in the Caribbean, ceased to exist.

Meanwhile, in Spain the preparation of the Invincible Armada for an attack on England was successfully completed, so in 1587 Drake was sent to Cadiz on the southern Atlantic coast of Spain. Boldness combined with superior power allowed Drake to destroy the ships in this port. Everyone expected Drake to command the fleet at Plymouth to defend England from the attack of the Spanish Armada in 1588. However, the Queen felt that due to his low birth and independent character Drake cannot be appointed commander in chief. Although Drake himself was personally involved in preparing and equipping the fleet, he dutifully yielded leadership to Lord Howard of Effingham and remained his chief tactical adviser throughout the campaign.

Thanks to skillful maneuvering, the English fleet broke through to the sea and turned back the Armada. When the week-long pursuit of the Armada in the English Channel began, Drake was appointed fleet commander on the Revenge (a ship displacing 450 tons with 50 guns on board), but he rejected this offer and 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 La Coruña 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 remained active in local affairs as mayor of Plymouth and member of parliament for that city. He also founded a shelter for wounded sailors in Chatham. In 1595 he was again called into the navy to lead an expedition to the West Indies along with J. Hawkins. The expedition ended in failure, Hawkins died off the coast of Puerto Rico, and Drake himself died of fever on January 28, 1596 off the coast of Portobelo.

Sir Francis Drake(English: Francis Drake; c. 1540 - January 28, 1596) - English navigator, slave trader, prominent politician of the era of Elizabeth I, successful pirate, second after committing trip around the world, vice admiral, reputed to be the thunder of the seas.

The first Englishman to circumnavigate the world (1577-1580).

Childhood and youth

The future “Iron Pirate” of Queen Elizabeth, the first English circumnavigator, was allegedly born in 1540 in the English town of Crowndale, Devonshire County.

Francis became the first-born in a farmer's family. When 11 more children were born one after another, the father, Edmund Drake, became a rural preacher in order to feed his large family. In 1549, the family, having rented out their lands, moved to the southeast of England, to the county of Kent. This move had a huge impact on the boy's fate. At the age of 13, Francis, who had dreamed of long sea voyages, fame and wealth since childhood, became a cabin boy on a merchant ship (barge) of his uncle, who fell in love with the hardworking, persistent and prudent young man so much that he bequeathed the ship to his nephew after his death. Thus, after the death of his uncle at the age of 16, Francis became the full captain of his own ship.

Life full of adventures

In 1567, Drake set off on his first major voyage to the West Indies, commanding a ship as part of the slave-trading expedition of his relative, Sir John Hawkins. During this expedition, near the Gulf of Mexico, the British ships were attacked by the Spaniards, and most of the ships were sunk. Only two sailing ships survived - Drake and Hawkins. The British demanded from the Spanish king that he pay them for the destroyed ships. The king, naturally, refused, then Drake “declared war” on the Spanish crown.

In 1572, the sailor set out on his own repeated campaign to the Spanish possessions in the West Indies, as a result of which he captured the city of Nombre de Dios (Spanish: Nombre de Dios) on, then several ships near the harbor near the Venezuelan city (Spanish: Nombre de Dios). Cartagena).

During this expedition, an English corsair attacked in the area of ​​the Isthmus of Panama a Spanish squadron called the “Silver Caravan” heading from Panama to Nombre de Dios, in the holds of which there were approx. 30 tons of silver. On August 9, 1573, Drake returned to Plymouth as a rich man, covered in the glory of a successful corsair, “the thunder of the seas.”

On November 15, 1577, the English Queen Elizabeth I ordered her faithful privateer to set off on an expedition to the Pacific coast of America. On December 13, 1577, Francis Drake, on the flagship Pelican with a displacement of 100 tons, set out from Plymouth on his most famous voyage at the head of a flotilla consisting of 4 large ones (Elizabeth, Sea Gold, Swan, "Christopher") ships and 2 small auxiliary vessels. By that time, he was already surrounded by the aura of fame as an “iron pirate”, an experienced navigator and a talented naval tactician.

The official purpose of the voyage was to discover new lands, however, in reality, Drake was supposed to rob Spanish ships, replenishing the English treasury with Spanish gold.

Francis went south to (Spanish: Estrecho de Magallanes), which the squadron passed successfully, but at the exit from it it fell into a severe storm that scattered the ships of the squadron. One ship crashed on the rocks, another was thrown back into the strait, and its captain decided to return to England.

The flagship "Pelican", the only one of all the ships, "made its way" to the Pacific Ocean, where for its excellent seaworthiness it was renamed the "Golden Hind". After the storm, he anchored among previously unknown islands, calling them "Elizabethan".

Involuntarily, Drake made an important geographical discovery: it turned out that (Spanish: Tierra del Fuego) is not part of the unknown Southern continent, but just a large island, beyond which the open sea continues. Subsequently, the wide area between Antarctica and Tierra del Fuego was named after him.

His further journey consisted of robberies off the coast and, for which the Viceroy of Peru sent 2 ships to capture the pirate. He escaped the pursuit to the northwest, robbing ships with jewelry along the way and capturing prisoners. It is impossible to establish today the exact number of ships that became victims of the pirate, but it is known that the loot was fabulous. A particularly big jackpot awaited " sea ​​dog"in (Spanish: Valparaiso) - pirates captured a ship standing in the harbor, loaded with gold and expensive goods, and stored in the city large stock golden sand But the main thing is that the Spanish ship contained secret nautical charts with detailed description west coast of South America.

Spanish cities and settlements on the coast did not expect an attack from the British and were not prepared for defense. Moving along the coast, the pirates captured city after city, filling their holds with gold. Not far from the Isthmus of Panama, they managed to board the large Spanish ship Carafuego, which contained more than 1.6 tons of gold and a huge amount of silver bars. In the Mexican harbor of Acapulco (Spanish: Acapulco), Drake captured a galleon loaded with spices and Chinese silk.

The privateer sailed north along the South American Pacific coast, and then explored the coast well north of the Spanish colonies, approximately to modern Vancouver (English: Vancouver; a city on the west coast of Canada). On June 17, 1579, the ship landed on an unknown shore, presumably in the area of ​​San Francisco, and according to another version, in modern Oregon. The pirate declared these lands an English possession, calling them “New Albion”.

Map of Drake's fleet movements (1572-1580)

He then crossed the Pacific Ocean and reached Mariana Islands(English: Mariana Islands). After repairing the ship and replenishing provisions, he set course for the Cape of Good Hope, then, circumnavigating Africa from the south, landed at Plymouth on September 26, 1580, completing the second circumnavigation after Magellan in 2 year 10 months and 11 days. At home, the pirate was greeted as a national hero; he was awarded an honorary knighthood by the Queen.

From his voyage around the world, Drake brought to England not only treasures worth a huge sum of 600 thousand pounds sterling (this was 2 times the annual income of the kingdom), but also potato tubers - for this his descendants are especially grateful to him.

It should be mentioned that his campaign caused a major international scandal, since there was no official state of war between Spain and England during this period. The Spanish king even demanded that the Queen of England punish Drake for piracy, compensate for material damage and apologize. Of course, Elizabeth had no intention of punishing anyone or compensating for the damage; on the contrary, from now on Francis Drake rested on his laurels. He was awarded the post of mayor of Plymouth, became inspector of the Royal Naval Commission, which monitored the state of the fleet, and in 1584 was elected a member of the House of Commons of the British Parliament. Since knighthood required him to have his own castle, Sir Francis bought an estate in Buckland Abbey, Devon.

However, the famous adventurer was clearly burdened by life on land. When in the mid-80s. Relations between the two countries worsened, Drake offered his services to the Queen and was ordered to form a fleet to strike Spain.

Soon, having received the rank of vice admiral, he prepared 21 ships for the voyage. In 1585, an impressive squadron went to sea, but the captain did not dare to go to the shores of Spain, setting a course for the Spanish possessions in America, which he thoroughly plundered, capturing a number major cities, including Santo Domingo (Spanish: Santo Domingo), Cartagena (Spanish: Cartagena) and San Augustine (Spanish: San Augustine).

In 1587, Drake launched his exceptionally daring attack on the most important Spanish port of Cadiz (Spanish: Cadiz): with 4 warships, he broke into the port, sank and burned more than 30 Spanish ships. As Francis himself put it, he deftly “scorched the beard of the Spanish King.” And on the way back, the corsair destroyed about 100 enemy ships off the Portuguese coast. However, the richest booty was delivered to the corsair by a Portuguese ship sailing from India with a cargo of spices, which was of such value that every sailor of the flotilla already considered his fate “settled.”

In 1588, Sir Francis, along with other English admirals, defeated the Spanish “Invincible Armada”. In 1589, he commanded the combined forces of the fleet (“English Armada”), under his command there were over 150 warships.

Drake's "English Armada"

The corsair tried to capture Portuguese Lisbon, but due to the lack of siege weapons, he suffered a crushing defeat. It seems that this time Drake’s luck ran out, he was unable to take the city, and out of 16 thousand people only 6 thousand remained alive. In addition, his military campaign cost the English treasury 50 thousand pounds sterling, which the stingy Queen could not stand , and the Iron Pirate lost her favor.

The next expedition to the shores of America for new treasures was the last for the corsair (1595-1596). Failures plagued the squadron; in addition, the weather was disgusting and diseases spread among the crews. Drake took the ships to an unfavorable place near the island of Escudo de Veraguas (Spanish: Escudo de Veraguas). Food ran out, people died from dysentery and tropical fever. Sir Francis himself soon fell ill, and on January 28, 1596, at the age of 56, he died of dysentery near Puerto Bello (modern Portobelo in Panama). According to tradition, the famous navigator was buried under volleys of naval guns in the ocean, placing his body in a lead coffin. The remnants of the squadron under the command of Thomas Baskerville returned to Plymouth without their admiral.

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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 first sailed on coasting ships 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 place as captain of a ship in John Hawkins's squadron, which was engaged in the slave trade and delivered them from Africa to the Spanish colonies in the West Indies. The voyage of 1566–1567 ended unsuccessfully as the Spanish launched a treacherous attack on English shipping at 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 Navy Paymaster J. Hawkins and Captain F. Drake.

Travel around the world.

For several years, Drake carried out pirate raids in the Caribbean, which Spain considered its territory, captured Nombre de Dios in central Panama, and robbed caravans transporting silver loads on mules from Peru to Panama. His activities attracted the attention of Elizabeth I and a group of courtiers, including the Treasurer of State, Lord Burghley, and the Home Secretary, Francis Walsingham. Funds were raised for the expedition, which lasted from 1577 to 1580. The expedition was originally planned to search for the supposed Southern Continent, but it turned out - perhaps at the direction of the Queen (even though England and Spain were not yet at war) - the most successful in history a pirate raid that yielded a return of £47 for every pound invested.

Drake sailed as captain of the 100-ton ship Pelican (later renamed the Golden Hind). . In addition, there were four other smaller ships, which, however, never completed the voyage. After quelling a mutiny on a ship off the coast of Patagonia, 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 the strait between Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica that now bears his name (although he himself probably never saw Cape Horn). On his way north, he plundered ships and harbors off the coasts of Chile and Peru and seemed to intend to return through the supposed Northwest Passage. Somewhere in the latitude of Vancouver (no ship's logs have survived), due to bad weather, Drake was forced to turn south and anchor somewhat north of modern San Francisco. The site, which he named New Albion, was established in 1936 thanks to the discovery of a copper plate with the date June 17, 1579, approximately 50 km northwest of Golden Gate (now Drake Bay). The plate bears an inscription declaring this territory the possession of Queen Elizabeth. Drake then crossed the Pacific Ocean and reached the Moluccas Islands, after which he returned to England.

Drake sailed around the world, demonstrating his mastery of navigation. The Queen knighted him as the first captain to circumnavigate the world (Magellan's claim was disputed as he died during the voyage in 1521). The account of Drake's sea voyages, compiled by the ship's chaplain Francis Fletcher and published by Haklut, is still very popular. Having received his share of the spoils, 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 to the West Indies, which meant the beginning of open war with Spain. His skill in the tactics of combined sea and land operations allowed him 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 Roanoke River valley (Virginia). Thus, the first colony in America, founded by Walter Raleigh, which was not just a settlement, but also a strategic base for pirate raids in the Caribbean, ceased to exist.

Meanwhile, in Spain the preparation of the Invincible Armada for an attack on England was successfully completed, so in 1587 Drake was sent to Cadiz on the southern Atlantic coast of Spain. Boldness combined with superior power allowed Drake to destroy the ships in this port. Everyone expected Drake to command the fleet at Plymouth to defend England from the attack of the Spanish Armada in 1588. However, the Queen felt that due to Drake's low birth and independent nature, Drake could not be appointed commander-in-chief. Although Drake himself was personally involved in preparing and equipping the fleet, he dutifully yielded leadership to Lord Howard of Effingham and remained his chief tactical adviser throughout the campaign.

Thanks to skillful maneuvering, the English fleet broke through to the sea and turned back the Armada. When the week-long pursuit of the Armada in the English Channel began, Drake was appointed fleet commander on the Revenge (a ship displacing 450 tons with 50 guns on board), but he rejected this offer and 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 La Coruña 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 remained active in local affairs as mayor of Plymouth and member of parliament for that city. He also founded a shelter for wounded sailors in Chatham. In 1595 he was again called into the navy to lead an expedition to the West Indies along with J. Hawkins. The expedition ended in failure, Hawkins died off the coast of Puerto Rico, and Drake himself died of fever on January 28, 1596 off the coast of Portobelo.