Richard Hawkins (Commanding Officer)

Sir Richard Hawkins (* 1560 or 1562 in Plymouth ; † April 17 or 18, 1622 in Slapton or London ) was a naval commander and son of John Hawkins .

Life

Richard Hawkins was the only son of John Hawkins. His grandfather (paternal side) William was a merchant from Tavistock who immigrated with his family to Plymouth in the early 16th century. John's wife Katherina Gonson, daughter of Benjamin Gonson , Treasurer of the Royal Navy from 1549 to 1573, generally recognized as Richard's mother, was, according to him, actually his stepmother. How Richard got his education is unknown. He never seemed to have attended a university or an inn of court . Still, he was remarkably proficient in Latin and mastered the skills expected of a gentleman at the time .

In 1570 he reached the Galapagos Islands , which was the starting point for many English pirates (to be named: Woodes Rogers transferred Alexander Selkirk in 1708 after his rescue from the Juan Fernández Islands to the Galapagos; James Colnett, 1793) on their way until around 1820 to exploit the Spanish trade routes near the west coast of South America , to hire there, especially on Santiago , and to attack Spanish galleons in order to steal their gold. Rumor has it that there is still hidden gold in the Galapagos Islands today. Drake crossed the Strait of Magellan in 1578 and carried out the first attacks on the coasts. The Dutchman Jacques l'Hermite Clerk and Hawkins himself soon followed the attacks near Cape Horn .

In 1582 Richard sailed to the West Indies with his uncle William . In 1585 he was the captain of the Galiot Duck on Francis Drake's pirate voyage in the Caribbean .

Spanish Armada in 1588

In 1588 he fought as captain of the Swallow , a 350-ton ship, in the English fleet against the Spanish Armada . Two small fires in Hawkins' possession frightened the Spanish fleet off Calais that it broke up their formation to get away.

He had a ship of around 350 tons built for a pirate voyage in the Pacific Ocean, which was sailed by Spanish ships and from which he hoped for fame and fortune based on Drake's example. Hawkins' religious mother christened the ship Repentance (Atonement), but the Queen ( Elizabeth I ), who was not a Puritan , renamed it Dainty (graceful).

In 1590 Hawkins served under his father in the unsuccessful attempt to raise a treasure fleet from India near the Azores . Probably at the end of 1591 he married Judith Hele (also Heale , approx. 1565–1629), the daughter of a merchant family like his own, from the west of the country. She bore him six children: Judith (1592), Margaretha (1603), John (1604), Richard, Johan (1607), Mary.

In 1592 he was involved in the boarding of the Madre de Dios , the richest East Indian carrack .

In 1593 he bought the Dainty , which was actually built for his father and used in his expeditions, and sailed to the West Indies , the Spanish Main (northeast coast of South America ) and the South Seas . Apparently he intended to loot the overseas property of the Spanish king ( Phillip II ). Hawkins, however, as claimed in a report thirty years after the expedition, and he was perhaps sure himself at the time, only wanted to discover the geographic features. After visiting the Brazilian coast, the Dainty crossed the Strait of Magellan and finally reached Valparaíso . Hawkins ransacked the city and then continued north, arriving at San Mateo Bay on June 1, 1994. Here he was captured on June 22nd after a three-day naval battle with two Spanish ships. He was held in Lima and in Spain from 1597 to 1602 when the ransom of £ 3,000 was paid.

On his return to England he became in 1603 the Knights defeated. He was Mayor and 1604 Member of Parliament for Plymouth. He was Vice Admiral of Devon until 1608 , which was not an easy post given the number of pirates on the coast. He was then imprisoned for approving (or tolerating?) Piracy. In 1620 he took part as deputy commander in an expedition against the Algerian pirates.

memoirs

His book Observations in His Voyage Into the South Sea , which he wrote around 1603, was printed in 1622. In it he impressively describes life at sea in the Elizabethan age . Charles Kingsley used the book as a template for his book Westward Ho! (1855).

Web links

• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900
• Encyclopædia Britannica: Sir Richard Hawkins
• Biographies: Explorers: Richard Hawkins by AL Rowse
• Sir Richard Hawkins
• Encyclopedia Britannica 1911: Sir Richard Hawkins
• Devonian Herotage: Admiral Sir Richard Hawkins
• The History of Parliament - Hawkins, Sir Richard
• The Gentlemen Adventures - Sir Richard Hawkins

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pirates and Buccaneers. In: Galapagos Conservancy, Inc. Retrieved August 20, 2020 (American English). 
2. ↑ Fern Coll: Famous Pirates Of The Galapagos Islands. Retrieved August 20, 2020 . 
3. ^ Charles Kingsley | British clergyman and writer. Retrieved August 17, 2020 .