Francis Drake circumnavigated the world
The circumnavigation of the world by Francis Drake was the first circumnavigation of the world under the guidance of an Englishman. Francis Drake and his team crossed the Atlantic , Pacific and Indian Oceans in 1,018 days from December 13, 1577 to September 26, 1580 . The world tour went down in history as The Famous Voyage .
classification
The first circumnavigation of the world is considered to be that of a Spanish expedition from 1519 to 1522 under the initial direction of the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan . Few survivors of a Spanish expedition started by García Jofre de Loaísa in 1525 , including the monk Andrés de Urdaneta , also succeeded in circumnavigating the world after a long period in Portuguese captivity on the Spice Islands when they returned to Europe. In literature, it is not their journey, but Drake's English expedition that is considered the second circumnavigation in history.
prehistory
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England there were various plans for an expedition through the Strait of Magellan into the Pacific. However, as Queen Elizabeth was aware of the provocation towards Spain that such a trip would have meant, these plans were postponed several times. Elizabeth's treasurer and advisor William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , in particular , prevented several of these plans. Opposite him stood the Co-Interior Minister Sir Francis Walsingham , who advocated an anti-Spanish policy.
Through the recommendation of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex , Francis Drake met Walsingham, who supported Drake's plans by bringing together donors who made the expedition financially possible. Under the direction of Thomas Gresham , the founder of the London Stock Exchange , a consortium was formed in which influential figures of England such as Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester , the Grand Admiral of England Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln , and the Captain of the Royal Life Guard Sir Christopher Hatton were partners who hoped for a financial gain through Drake's journey.
The company had to be planned and prepared in strictest secrecy, since on the one hand Elisabeth's most important advisor, William Cecil, would have refused and thwarted it; on the other hand, Spanish interests in South America were threatened by this trip, so that the initiators could foresee that Spain would try to prevent the expedition by force. In order to conceal the real reason for the expedition from the opponents, among other things, a permit for a trade trip to Egypt was obtained from the Sultan of Alexandria .
Destinations of the trip
Due to the extensive secrecy before and after the trip, it is not possible to determine exactly what the actual goals of the trip were. One possible target that is being speculated about is the discovery of the legendary Terra Australis continent , which was suspected to be south or on the Pacific side of the Strait of Magellan . Another goal could have been to find the Strait of Anián (former Spanish name for today's Northwest Passage ) from the Pacific. Drake's compatriot Martin Frobisher attempted this at the same time on three voyages of discovery (1576–1578) from the Atlantic. Allegedly Drake also had the mandate to establish trade relations with the rulers of the Spice Islands (today's Moluccas ). There is also the legend that Drake, when he saw Panama in 1573 (→ attack on a Spanish caravan in front of Panama ), made the decision to attack the city from the Pacific Ocean.
The preparations
The ships
Francis Drake set sail with a fleet of five ships:
The Pelican was the flagship of the fleet and was built especially for the company in 1576/77. It is not known whether it was from an English or foreign (e.g. Dutch) shipbuilder, as no more construction documents exist. The ship had a cargo volume of 100 tons, was armed with 18 cannons and had a crew of about 60 men. The ship was rigged with a jib and fore sail, mainsail and mainsail, blind (a small square sail) and latin besan (→ list of sail types ). A complete field blacksmith's shop was also carried on the ship . During the voyage, the Pelican was renamed the Golden Hinde . The new name referred to the coat of arms of the financial partner Christopher Hatton, on which a golden doe was depicted.
The Elisabeth was built in Deptford , had a cargo volume of 80 tons, was armed with 16 cannons and had a crew of about 50 men. Their captain was John Winter. Prefabricated individual parts for a total of four pinasses were carried on board the Elisabeth and the Pelican .
The Swan was built as a "Dutch Flyboat" (German " Flieboot "), could carry 50 tons and was equipped with five cannons. The Dutch Wassergeusen used this type of two-masted coastal ship in their fight against the Spaniards. The captain of the 30-man crew was John Chester. The Swan was intended as a floating warehouse and workshop.
The Marygold was a barque that was armed mainly with light, rotating breech-loading cannons. She could hold 30 tons, had a total of 16 cannons on board and had a crew of around 20 men. Their captain was John Thomas. The ship was probably intended as a floating battery.
The Benedict was a pinasse that was to serve as a dispatch boat and for reconnaissance. She had a cargo volume of 15 tons and a crew of about 10 men and was armed with only one cannon. Their captain was Tom Moone.
The guns carried on board were likely to have consisted exclusively of small calibers, with six pounders on the lower decks of the large ships and three pounders on the upper decks. The other armament probably consisted of small one or a half pound cannons, which were mounted on the bulwarks in forks. They were loaded with shot and used against the crews of enemy ships. In addition, there were arquebuses , polearms , swords, shields and cutlass, as well as a large number of different special weapons such as. B. "stink pots" (primitive incendiary devices ), which were later to cause great astonishment among the Spanish prisoners.
The crew
A total of 164 people were on board the five ships at the time of sailing in November 1577. In addition to the seafarers, these included additional specialists and craftsmen.
Francis Drake himself took an eight-person personal baton with him. These included his secretary, Vicar Francis Fletcher, a mouth cook, his cousin John as a squire, four musicians (including Christopher Hatton's personal trumpeter) and Diego. Diego was a former African slave who officially rode as a "servant". He accompanied Francis Drake on his Caribbean voyage in 1572 and had become a friend and important ally for Drake. Also on board was Hatton's private secretary Thomas Doughty, who may have been designated as commander of the arquebusiers on board. Doughty was accompanied by his half-brother John and friend Leonard Vicary.
Starting difficulties
The fleet ran out of Plymouth Sound on November 15, 1577 at 5 p.m. and shortly afterwards got into a severe storm. The Marygold hit the ground and was damaged in the process. On the Pelican , the crew was forced to cut the main mast of the ship. The ships first escaped to the port of Falmouth and then returned to Plymouth for the necessary repairs, which lasted until December 1577. The fact that the main mast of the Pelican had to be thrown overboard indicated insufficient ballast . Therefore, Drake dismissed the businessman James Sydae, who was responsible for provisions and the ballast on board.
The course of the trip
In the Atlantic
On December 13th, the five ships sailed for the second time and on December 27th they reached the island of Mogador , which is in front of today's city of Essaouira . On Mogador, one of the pinasses that was carried along was assembled and baptized with the name Christopher . During the stay, a sailor from the Pelican was kidnapped by locals. Despite an intensive search, he was missing.
Then Drake went to the Cape Verde Islands , where he wanted to replenish the supplies. On the way there, six Spanish and Portuguese fishing boats were captured, the crews of which were compensated for the hijacked ships. On one of these occasions Drake left the Pinnasse Benedict to the crew of a Portuguese ship and kept the Portuguese ship in return . Immediately afterwards, the Portuguese caravel Santa Maria was captured and the ship, which had been captured shortly before, was left to the Portuguese crew. The on board the Santa Maria located Navigator Nuño da Silva was captured by Drake. The Santa Maria was renamed Mary in honor of Drake's wife and Thomas Doughty was appointed captain.
On April 5, 1578, Drake's ships reached the coast of what is now Brazil at 31 degrees 30 minutes south latitude. They sailed along the coast until they entered the natural harbor in the estuary of the Río de la Plata on April 14th . It was there that Drake decided to abandon the Swan and have it scrapped in order to reclaim its ironwork . Here you met Indians for the first time . To gain the trust of the locals, Drake had gifts distributed. They were hung on wooden sticks over the ship's side so that the Indians could receive them from a safe distance and also hand over their own presents. One of the fellow travelers described the Indians as “mostly naked ... they had long hair and had their bodies painted red, white and black and oiled to protect them from the cold ... their appearance was terrifying, they had stuck small bones through their noses and earlobes, but they were very much friendly " . The Indians had a fondness for music and showed an interest in the musicians' drums and trumpets. They performed dances in honor of their guests, with the captain of the Elisabeth John Winter participating in one of these dances "for the great pleasure of his people". An Indian stole Drake's headgear, a velvet cap with a gold ribbon on it, and Drake was amused by it. The seaman Edward Cliffe later said: "(Drake) would not let anyone twist their hair" .
On June 3, 1578, the ships left the Río de la Plata and reached Port St. Julian ( Puerto San Julián in Spanish ) on June 20 . Drake, with six men, rowed ashore to look for drinking water. There they found a remnant of Ferdinand Magellan's journey : a gallows that Magellan had used to execute two mutineers . On the beach they met some locals who were friendly at first and were interested in the English longbow that the seaman Robert Winterhie carried with him. When he drew the bow in order to demonstrate it, the bowstring broke. An Indian was frightened and shot an arrow through Winterhie from two meters away. Oliver, the Pelican's master gunner , carried the only musket , but the powder was wet and the Indian shot him too. Drake then pulled the survivors together on the beach and ordered the shield-bearers to cover the others. Any arrows that could be reached were broken to prevent re-use. Drake was able to reach, clean, and reload the dead gunmaster's musket, and he killed the Indian who had shot the two Englishmen. Thereupon the remaining Indios stopped the attack and fled.
In the next few days the Mary was also scrapped and burned. At that time, the remaining three ships still had around 160 people on board.
The Thomas Doughty Affair
Even on the first part of the voyage, the crew expressed displeasure. One of the sailors aboard the Elisabeth told the fleet's Vice Admiral, John Winter, “Master Drake hired me on a trade trip to Alexandria. If I had known that this [he pointed to the Moroccan coast] was Alexandria, I would have preferred to be hung in England. "
After Thomas Doughty was appointed the new captain of the hijacked and renamed Mary , there was an argument between Doughty and Drake's brother Thomas. Doughty accused Thomas of stealing jewelry from the booty of a pinch . Francis Drake, who had rowed over to the ship, accused Doughty of deliberately undermining his authority by making unsubstantiated claims. The sailors aboard the Mary then accused Doughty of embezzlement themselves. Indeed, some Portuguese coins, a pair of gloves and a signet ring were found in his possession. From today's perspective, Drake's reaction is no longer comprehensible, because he transferred Doughty as the new commander on board the Pelican .
After getting on board the flagship, Doughty tried to pull the skipper Thomas Cuttle to his side. A short time later, Drake sent the trumpeter John Brewer on board the Pelican . A furious argument ensued between Doughty and Brewer, which ended in an open fight. Drake then had Doughty and his half-brother John arrested on the Swan . Doughty then began there to incite the officers as well as the gentlemen on board (the members of the upper classes or land nobility). The result was that the Swan's skipper , Gregory, packed up his things and moved to the crew quarters. It was important to Drake that there were no class differences on his ships. He required everyone, without exception, to take part in the day-to-day work. There were practical reasons for that. When Magellan's circumnavigation of the world sailed, there were hardly enough trained sailors left to sail the ship. Gregory used his authority as a skipper to divert the officers' provisions to the occupation quarters. Doughty complained about this to the Swan's commander , John Chester. He shrugged and pointed out to Doughty that he had to talk to Gregory. When Doughty did this, Gregory explained to him that he was still lucky: "If I had control over it, the gentlemen could chew the row benches of the dinghy". There was another fight. Drake boarded the Swan to see what was going on. There was another fight, this time between Doughty and Drake himself. Drake dragged him to the mainmast of the ship and tied Doughty to the mast.
Upon arrival at Port St. Julian , the trial against Doughty, who was accused of high treason , began. The process itself must be described as a farce, because the verdict was certain before the “court” even met. Drake tried again and again to distract from the pirate note he supposedly had. Without one, the process was practically void, as Drake could not claim to act as the Queen's proxy. Those present asked Drake to produce the letter of insolvency. He then rummaged through his papers and then explained, "Well, I actually forgot exactly what I wanted to bring in my cabin." He then distracted by showing papers that showed inconsistencies in Doughty's statement. The verdict was ultimately based on partly questionable testimony, whereby the statements of the Pelican 's carpenter , Ned Bright, were later criticized as "false testimony" by Drake's secretary Francis Fletcher. On July 1, 1578, the verdict was passed, and Doughty chose death by beheading. Drake and Doughty had his last supper together. The sentence was carried out the next day after Doughty apologized to those present for his wrongdoing. He hugged Drake and called him his "good captain" . He was buried on a small island off the coast next to Robert Winterhie and Oliver, who were killed in the attack by locals.
On July 11th, Drake addressed the assembled crews of his ships:
- “Gentlemen, I am not a good speaker because my upbringing was not about learning. But everyone should remember what I have to say and write it down. For in England I will answer for everything I have to say, even to Her Majesty! Now it is so, gentlemen, that we are far from our country and our friends. On all sides we are surrounded by our enemies, for which reason we cannot afford to discount any of our own, for we cannot replace him if we offered a thousand pounds for him. So we need to address these mutinies and strife that have spread among us. Because, in the life of God, it robs me of my senses just thinking about it. There is such a controversy here between the seamen and the gentlemen and such behavior between the gentlemen and the seamen that it drives me crazy just to hear about it.
- However, gentlemen, I need to know that this has ended. Let us show that we belong to a single (travel) society and let us not give our enemies reason to rejoice in our decline and defeat. I will recognize the one who refuses to touch a rope, but I know that there are no such here. And since the gentlemen are very important for governing, I took them on board, for this purpose and for other reasons. And while I know seafarers are some of the most jealous people in the world, and they are so rude without a government, I still can't do without them. So if anyone wants to return, let them know. Here is the Marygold , a ship I can do without. I give them to those who want to return and give them whatever credit I can give them - either in writing or otherwise. However, they would do well to actually sail home. Because if I meet them again, I will certainly sink them.
- And now, gentlemen, let's look at what we've done: We pulled three mighty rulers together by the ears. First of all there would be Her Majesty, and then the kings of Portugal and Spain. And if our journey is not crowned with success, we will not only become objects of mockery to our enemies, but we will also inflict infinite shame on our country. What a triumph it would be for Spain and Portugal and such an undertaking would never be attempted again! "
At the southern tip of South America
On August 17, 1578, the Pelican and Elisabeth left their anchorages in the direction of the Strait of Magellan and passed the Cape of the Virgins on August 20 . Drake had a ceremony held there, at which the ships saluted and the Queen was honored. On this occasion the Pelican was renamed the Golden Hinde . The new name referred to the coat of arms of Christopher Hatton , on which a golden doe was depicted.
Two days later the ships reached the entrance to the Strait of Magellan. Drake anchored near three islets, which he named St. George, St. Bartholomew and after the Queen. Neither the English nor the captured Portuguese navigator Nuño da Silva had ever advanced this far south. The Pacific was reached on September 6, 1578, after only a 14-day voyage. The captains of the ships were told that if they were separated from the fleet, they should look for Drake in the area 30 degrees south latitude. After leaving the road behind, the ships turned to the northwest, following the charts on board, assuming the South American coast was in that direction. About two days later, it turned out that the cards were wrong. Drake soon proved that the Chilean coast was not northwest but north of the Strait of Magellan. This was Drake's first geographic discovery.
After another 70 nautical miles, the ships got caught in a severe storm that lasted 50 days. Towards the end of September, the Marygold went down with a crew of 29. The ship's carpenter Ned Bright, who had testified against Thomas Doughty, was also on board. Bright had been exchanged for Thomas Moone, who was initially used as commander of the Pinasse Benedict . Drake's secretary, Francis Pretty, stated that the fall of the Marygold was God's punishment for Ned Bright for bearing false testimony against his neighbor.
Elisabeth was separated from the Golden Hinde towards the end of October . The Elisabeth then turned away and sailed home. Eight months later, in June 1579, it reached Plymouth and brought the first news of Drake's fate to England.
Drake had a copy of Gerhard Mercator's map of the world on the trip . The southern continent Terra Australis, postulated by Claudius Ptolemy as early as the 2nd century, is shown on this map . Drake now showed that the Strait of Magellan was not a canal between two continents. To the south of the road there was no Terra Australis , but a broken line of islands behind which the open sea stretched. During the exploration, an island was discovered which, according to various statements by the tour participants, is said to have been either 55, 56 or 57 degrees south. It is now assumed that it was today's Cape Horn . Drake named the cape "Elisabetha" and took possession of it for the queen. Vicar Fletcher erected a memorial stone with the Queen's name and the date of arrival, and Drake lay down at the southernmost point of the island, declaring that no European had ever been this far south.
On October 28, 1578, after 50 days, the storm ended. At that time, many men aboard the Golden Hinde were suffering from scurvy . However, those affected recovered over the next few weeks.
Off the west coast of South America
On November 25, the ship anchored on the coast of the island of Mocha off Chile . Drake rowed ashore accompanied by twelve men and was greeted there by a group of Indians, who at first received the English in a friendly manner. They were Araucans , the indigenous people of Chile, who had already offered strong resistance to the Spanish conquistadors in their traditional settlement area. The following day Drake returned to the island with ten men. Sailors Tom Brewer and Tom Flood were hired to fetch drinking water. Shortly afterwards, the boat was attacked by the Indians with arrows and spears, and all occupants of the boat were wounded. Drake himself suffered two head injuries, including an arrow in the face below his right eye. The crew cast off again with great difficulty and finally reached the ship, but had to leave Brewer and Flood behind. Drake had the boat manned with soldiers to search for the two missing sailors, who were already dead. The officers aboard the Golden Hinde urged Drake to give the order to fire the ship's guns. However, he rejected this on the grounds that the Indians "probably thought we were Spaniards" , that such an act would not bring the two dead sailors back to life and that the Indians "had already suffered enough at the hands of Europeans" .
On December 5, 1578, the Golden Hinde reached the port of Valparaíso , which was used to supply Santiago de Chile . A boat was launched and people rowed to a Spanish ship lying in the harbor. The Spaniards awaited the arrival of some dignitaries and mistook them for Drake's men. The crew of the Spanish ship had lined up on deck and greeted Drake's men with a drum roll. The English climbed on board and the carpenter Tom Moone struck a Spaniard with the words “Abajo, Perro!” (“Down with you, you dog!”) . The remaining Spaniards were driven into the lower deck of the ship and locked up, but one of them managed to escape. He swam ashore and alerted the residents. Drake sent two boats with armed men behind them, but they met no resistance as the residents had fled. The English plundered the harbor and captured flour, wine and four boxes with about 25,000 pesos in gold. Some silver implements were stolen from a small church and a Spanish navigator was also captured. The ship lying in the harbor was taken over as a prize . On the morning of the next day, Drake sailed on.
Shortly afterwards, one of the pinnaces on board the Golden Hinde was assembled . She was supposed to help in the search for the missing ships and in towing captured ships out of Spanish ports. Then repairs were carried out on board the Golden Hinde and the ship's heavy artillery was placed on the lower deck.
In the meantime, Rodrigo de Quiroga , the governor of Chile, had a ship equipped with about 100 soldiers to pursue Drake and sent a boat to Callao to warn the authorities there. Drake spent another week searching around the island of Tongoy for the missing ships, hoping for a rendezvous 30 degrees south. On December 19, 1578, he anchored in a bay south of Cyppo, today's Coquimbo . Twelve men were sent ashore to search for water. They were attacked by Spanish soldiers and cavalry supported by Indian auxiliaries. The English took shelter behind a boulder, but the sailor Robert Minivy was shot by the Spanish. His body was recovered by the Indians, the Spaniards beheaded the dead man and then cut out his heart. Drake sailed north past Cyppo and entered Salada Bay . The Golden Hinde was overhauled again and another pinasse was assembled. It was big enough for 40 men and could carry a small cannon in the bow. However, the further search for the other ships proved unsuccessful.
Drake left the bay a month later and entered the port of Arica on February 7, 1579 . This was a small town with about 100 houses that was a stopover for the transport of silver from Potosí . However, Drake was disappointed. Two ships were captured, one of which had trade goods and wine on board, the other 37 silver bars and a cassette with silver coins. One of the prizes and its navigator were taken away, the other burned, possibly due to an accident. The next destination was the small port of Chule . With Drake's arrival expected, the only prey was a small ship with only drinking water on board. It was originally loaded with gold, but it was brought ashore in a hurry and guarded by Spanish soldiers and Indians. From the beach, the locals cursed Drake and his crew as thieves and pirates and mocked them for being late.
During the next few days, Drake released the two prize ships and released his prisoners, with the exception of the navigators. Then he turned back to Callao. More prizes were made on the way there. One of the Spanish captains reported Drake from a ship with a very rich cargo, the Callao short direction previously Panama had left. It was the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción (Our [dear] wife of the [Immaculate] Conception) , who had been renamed Cacafuego ( fire-shit or fire-eater ) , albeit disrespectfully, because of her strong armament . Drake learned that the Cacafuego would be calling at several ports on the way. He thought it possible to overtake the ship.
On February 15, Drake stole his way into the port of Callao, between the island of San Lorenzo and the coast, which served as the port of Lima , 10 kilometers inland . The port was full of ships (the lowest estimate was nine and the highest was 30). Although the port's defenses had been upgraded as a result of the warning from Valparaíso , Drake dispatched one of the pinnacles and a small boat and searched one after the other. Little was achieved in this process. The ships had nothing of value on board. One of the ships belonged to the merchant Miguel Ángel. However, the silver cargo was still in a warehouse on land and consisted of 200,000 pesos. Drake had the ships' anchor ropes cut and the masts cut off on the two largest ships. The booty consisted only of linen and a leather case containing some reals in silver. In the meantime, another Spanish ship, the San Cristóbal , entered the port and dropped anchor. There she waited for the Spanish customs boat, not realizing that an English ship was hiding in the harbor. The customs officers, in turn, mistook the San Cristóbal in the dark and instead walked alongside the Golden Hinde . A seaman of the crew explained to the customs officers in fluent Spanish that it was Miguel Angel's ship from Chile, and the customs officers began to climb aboard. However, one of them noticed the guns in the lower deck of the ship. However, none of the Spanish ships in the Pacific carried artillery, as normally no threat was to be expected that would have made this necessary. The customs officer jumped back into the boat, the crew of which was now desperately trying to row towards the coast to warn the authorities. However, one of Francis Drake's boats was able to intercept them. An English sailor was shot dead by a Spanish musketeer. Meanwhile, the escape of the customs boat on board the San Cristóbal was noticed and so the crew fled when the Golden Hinde passed alongside.
The Spanish viceroy of Peru, Don Francisco de Toledo , was informed of the English attack early in the morning and had the militia, about 200 men on foot and on horseback, deploy. General Diego de Frías Trejo brought these troops to Callao and discovered Drake off the coast, who was busy plundering the San Cristóbal . Two ships, the Nuestra Señora de la Valle under Frias Trejo and the Nao de Muriles under Pedro de Arana, were found and manned with about 300 men. None of them had artillery on board and there were few firearms. Drake released the San Cristóbal with all current prisoners (with the exception of Nuño da Silva) and sailed northward. The Spaniards turned away. The viceroy was extremely angry with the fiasco and blamed his general Frias Trejo. He had a ship equipped with 100 soldiers and gave Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa the task of tracking Drake to the heights of Nicaragua if necessary . However, Gamboa turned off at the height of Panama and sailed home.
Drake was still looking for the cacafuego . He learned from the captain of a pinch that it was three days away. By the time they reached Paita , the distance had shrunk to two days. Two ships were captured in Paita on February 20, 1579. One of them belonged to the merchant Benito Díaz de Bravo. They found 80 pounds of gold, some silver, food and ship equipment. Díaz Bravo later estimated his losses at about 18,000 pesos in gold and silver and 4,000 pesos in merchandise. Drake had the ship tested for its sailing skills, and wondered if he should keep it as a prize. Díaz Bravo then explained to him that his ship was his only livelihood. He later said, "He ... took my hand and led me to the forecastle, where he explained to me that he would let me have the ship and give me another anchor rope from his own country, and he said that even if he did if he should take it (the ship), he would pay me for it with a piece of gold from Valdivia . ” The sailors of the Golden Hinde returned on board in a bad mood, claiming that Díaz Bravo's clerk, Francisco Jacome, had the real value lie of the charge. On board Díaz Bravo's ship were some black slaves whom Drake had freed. One of them claimed that Jacome hid silver and gold on board. The English returned aboard the Spanish ship, dragged Jacome to the mainmast, put a noose around his neck and pulled him up on a rahnock to make him speak. When this had no effect, they dropped the man into the water, where he was fished up by the Golden Hinde's dinghy .
Drake occasionally took black slaves aboard the Spanish Prizes on board. He offered them to work as seamen for the same wages as the English. He probably intended to leave her with the Cimarrónes in Panamá .
The boat reached the port of Guiaquill (today's Guayaquil ) on February 24th, and one day later the equator was crossed.
The capture of the cacafuego
Drake followed the Cacafuego again and offered the lookout a gold chain as the price for the sighting. On the afternoon of March 1st, 1579 off the Cape of San Francisco (southwest of today Tumaco ( Colombia )), about four nautical miles seaward, it was the seventeen-year-old John Drake, who discovered the ship and won the prize. The Cacafuego had about 120 tons and was under San Juan de Anton. He had sailed from Peru without being told about Drake. Anton and his officers were therefore not worried when they discovered a strange ship on the same course.
Drake had a few jugs filled with water and deployed as sea anchors so as not to reduce the distance to the Spanish ship too quickly and to be able to skip the pods of the Golden Hinde unnoticed. Nine hours later, that night, they were within shouting distance. The English pinasse had been hidden behind the Golden Hinde and was now running to port next to the Spanish ship, while the Golden Hinde itself ran to starboard behind the stern and also went alongside . The Cacafuego was called: “English ship - strike sail!” ( “English ship - strike sail !”) So that Anton surrendered without a fight. However, he refused. Drake then caused the Cacafuego's mizzen mast to collapse with a brief volley of three cannon shots . At the same time, an arquebus volley was released from the pinasse , injuring a soldier on board the Spanish ship. Anton surrendered and the English boarded the ship.
The Spanish captain was brought aboard the Golden Hinde , where he found Drake taking off his armor. Drake hugged him and greeted him with the words, “Be patient. This is the custom of war ” . Drake stayed with the Prize for a week, speaking to Anton often during that time. The fate of John Oxenham was discussed . John Oxenham had been involved in Drake's raid on a Spanish caravan off Panamá in 1573 and had crossed the Isthmus of Panamá in 1576 with a small crew and the help of Cimarrónes . The components carried for a 45-tonne pinasse were put together and then Spanish cities and ships in the Pacific were attacked. Oxenham was later captured by the Spanish. Drake reacted angrily at the capture and asked Anton to inform the Spanish viceroy that if anything should happen to John Oxenham, it would cost the lives of 2,000 Spaniards. Anton appeased him and said that Oxenham and his people would probably only be forced into military service. Drake was satisfied with that. However, his use had no effect. Oxenham was convicted and executed by the Spanish Inquisition in 1580 .
In the meantime, the cargo of the Cacafuego was brought to the Golden Hinde . It consisted of 13 or 14 boxes of silver coins, 80 pounds of gold and 26 tons of silver bars. That corresponded to 360,000 pesos, of which 106,500 pesos belonged to King Philip II and the rest to private individuals. In Tudor currency that was 126,000 pounds, which was half of the tax revenue of the Kingdom of England at the time. The later indication of only 33,000 Pesos in unregistered, unminted silver is viewed as an understatement by Spanish merchants. Eventually the cacafuego was released. A cabin boy on the Spanish ship stepped in front of Drake and explained: “We can no longer call our ship 'Cacafuego' ('fire shit'), but from now on it has to be called 'Cacaplata' ('silver shit'). Your ship is the 'Cacafuego' ” . The remark sparked laughter and was later brought up as a joke by the sailors aboard the Golden Hinde .
San Juan de Anton later testified: “Before the English released my ship, he gave certain things as gifts to those who had been robbed. He gave 30-40 pesos to each, and some were given Portuguese cloth and tools such as garden knives and hoes, as well as two of his own ornate coats. He gave a soldier (only the last name Victoria has been handed down) a couple of pistols and a musket for me, which - as he explained to me - came from Germany, for which reason he held it in high regard. He gave the clerk an iron shield and a sword, and he said he would give them to us so that we would look like men under arms ... He gave me two barrels of tar, six quintals of German iron and a keg of gunpowder, given to a merchant named Cuevas he got a bag with colored sight glasses and said they were for his wife ... He also gave me a gold-plated silver basin with the inscription 'Franciscus Draques' and when he released us, he gave me a letter of safe conduct with his signature and told me he was giving me this in case I should meet one of the two other English ships ('Elisabeth' and 'Marygold') that were behind him, so that no one could harm me or rob me a second time. ” The letter of safe conduct has been received remained. In it, Captain Winter and Captain Thomas are told not to harm anyone and that they should double pay Anton for anything they should take from the Spanish ship, and he continues: “I pray to God who is the protector all in the world is that he may keep us, and give him all honor, praise and glory ” . Let your fate be in the hands of “Him who redeemed us with his blood, and I have the great hope that no further misfortune will happen to us, but that he will help us in our troubles and provide you for the suffering of Christ, in case you are in danger and that you do not despair of God's grace, because he will protect us from all adversity and bring us to our port. ” The letter is signed “ Your Sorrowful Captain, whose heart is heavy for you. Francis Drake "
The conditions on board the ship
With regard to the obedience of his men and the handling of prisoners by Drake, there are revealing testimonies from Spanish prisoners on board the Golden Hinde and from the Spanish navigator Nuño da Silva. According to them, Drake's men were "trained like seasoned Italian mercenaries ... every man on the crew had to clean and maintain his weapons regularly." Drake placed great emphasis on discipline and even small offenses were punished.
In contrast, Drake's prisoners were “always treated politely and with the utmost courtesy” , with special attention paid to the sick or injured and the personal property of the Spanish seafarers largely unaffected. Drake himself said, "I wouldn't want to take anything that didn't belong to either King Phillip or Don Martinez de Enriquez ... I won't stop until I've captured the two million my cousin John Hawkins lost in San Juan de Ulúa " .
On board, great emphasis was placed on the practice of faith, which is why religious ceremonies were held several hours a day . Drake read from a book of stories of Protestant martyrs and led the crew in singing hymns. The uncompromising Protestant spirit has been described by prisoners and affected Spanish colonists . According to this, Catholic churches and chapels were looted, with religious symbols such as statues or crucifixes often being destroyed. With a few exceptions, however, such activities were limited to material goods. The Spanish colonists were spared the massacres and abuse that were common at the time .
One of the prisoners later stated that it was a criminal offense for the sailors to address Drake bareheaded. They had to wear a hat or other headgear that was only available on special occasions, such as B. religious ceremonies, could be removed on command. In the 16th century, great care was actually taken to ensure that members of the lower classes would respectfully and respectfully take off their hats when they were in the presence of superiors or socially superior people. The crew addressed Drake as Captain Francis , as opposed to Captain Winter , Captain Chester, or Captain Thomas . There may have been practical reasons in part for this, as Winter, Chester, and Thomas all had their first names, but it is unusual for the crew not to use the title Captain Drake . The same prisoner said he had asked the Golden Hinde sailors to see what they thought of Drake. He found that they adored Drake, despite the significant discipline and authority problems at the beginning of the trip. Drake always insisted that everyone on board should take part in all the work that came about, including not exempting himself from the lowest of activities, such as going on a sea watch. Another prisoner even observed how Drake went ashore in a boat and "in full clothes and shoes, jumped into the water and then, standing up to his neck in the water, hauled water barrels."
On the trip, Francis Drake and his brother John made sketches and drawings of the flora and fauna, as well as the landscape and the people. Nuño da Silva later reported "... when Drake and his cousin were in the cabin, they always painted."
Off the coast of Central America
While looking for a port where the Golden Hinde could be overtaken again, Drake captured Rodrigo Tello's Frigata off the coast of Nicaragua . The ship just left the port of Nicoya (in present-day Costa Rica ), a supply depot for traffic with the Philippines . Drake captured some nautical charts and sailing instructions, and took Captain Alonso Sanchez de Colchero as a prisoner. He also kept the ship and sent the prisoners ashore with the pinasse . Colchero was found to be uncooperative and he later claimed that Drake tried to bribe him. He was treated just as brutally as Diaz Bravo's secretary Jacome before. While the attempts at bribery by John Drake and Nuño da Silva are documented, the mistreatment was not mentioned by any of the witnesses present and thus most likely an exaggeration by Colchero.
On March 16, Drake reached the island of Caines (today's name Caño ). Here the ship was repaired and wood, provisions and water were bunkered. Another ship, that of Don Francisco de Zárate , was taken on April 4, 1579. This time, too, the Spaniards fell for the explanation that the Golden Hinde was Miguel Ángel's ship . Drake had a boat pulled alongside and fired a volley of muskets. The Spaniards surrendered without resistance, with no sacrifices. This time four boxes with Chinese porcelain , silk and taffeta and linen were captured. There was also a black woman on board and Juan Pasqual, an indigenous leader, who Drake took with him. Colchero was exchanged for Pasqual as a prisoner. Drake initially assumed that the owner of the ship, Zárate, was related to Don Martinez de Enrique. He told Colchero that "if the named Zarate was really related to the viceroy, he would hang him as such." The misunderstanding was cleared up before Drake dismissed the ship and gave everyone on board a handful of reals to say goodbye. He showed particular compassion in dealing with the sick on board. The Spaniards later described him as a rather posh crook.
The small port of Guatulco (today's Huatulco in Mexico ) in the viceroyalty of New Spain was the last to be called . The ship stayed there from April 13-16, 1579. A ship with trade goods lying in the harbor was captured and Drake's men went ashore to pillage the place. Food, drinking water and clothing were taken away. In addition, several thousand reals were found in silver, and some valuables were stolen from the small church in the village. The Alcalde Gaspar de Vargas and some residents tried to resist, but were driven into the woods. Here, too, the uncompromising Protestant spirit of the English was evident: They took a crucifix from a Spaniard and smashed it with the declaration “only unbelievers worship stones and sticks.” In the church, the images of saints and crosses were destroyed, the painting above the altar was torn and smash the altar. A tall, hunchbacked English sailor climbed the steeple and removed the bell. The local dignitaries were invited to tour aboard the Golden Hinde . Drake offered them a glass of wine and said he would not tolerate any interference. He indicated that he intended to attack Acapulco later . He may have thought about this, but it is more likely that this was deliberate misinformation to mislead the Spaniards. However, they took the claim seriously. Two ships with 200 soldiers were equipped and the militia were called to face Drake.
The Strait of Anián
Instead, however, Drake ran on a north and then west course until he left the Spanish zone of influence in America behind. Meanwhile, the question arose for him whether he should look for the suspected Northwest Passage next , drive through the Strait of Magellan again, or instead cross the Pacific. However, since the Spaniards believed he was going back, they equipped four ships in the Caribbean to intercept Drake. The possibility that he would try to find a Northwest Passage or cross the Pacific was not thought of. Only Nuño da Silva, who had been left behind in Guatulco, said: “I think he will try to drive along the coast to find the Strait of Anián [former Spanish name for today's Northwest Passage] . ... should he not find her, he will try to get home via China . "
At this point in time, Drake still had two ships at his disposal, the Golden Hinde and Rodrigo Tellos Frigata, which were loaded with huge treasures. About 60-70 people were still on board, including three blacks who had been freed by Drake in Guatulco. Drake had already lost two ships and could not afford any further casualties, so the Strait of Magellan route was discarded as too dangerous. He had previously indicated a possible circumnavigation to Thomas and Winter when he told them that he would be "found in Portuguese India" if their ships were separated. However, since the Strait of Anián, believed to be 40 degrees north, would have been the easiest route home, Drake, to avoid bad winds, headed west first and then turned north. A position of 48 degrees north was probably reached a little south of today's Canadian / US border. (In fact, the Northwest Passage is over 70 degrees north.) Just before they got this far, the weather turned so cold that, according to Francis Fletcher, “Meat froze as soon as it was removed from the fire. ... the ropes and blocks were frozen so stiff that they could no longer be operated without difficulty. ” On June 5, 1579, adverse winds forced Drake to anchor off the coast. He noted in the logbook that there is no northerly connection between the oceans.
Nova Albion
On June 5, 1579, the ships entered a bay during continuous storms and in thick fog. Drake realized that the presumed location of the Strait of Anián could not be correct. So the plans were changed and a Pacific crossing began. So they first sailed south along the coast and reached a point at about 38 degrees north latitude. Today three anchorages are believed to be possible: The most likely is Drakes Bay (also Drakes Estero , in today's Point Reyes National Seashore ) at 38 degrees. Others are Bolinas Lagoon at 37 degrees 55 minutes and San Francisco Bay at 37 degrees 49 minutes. On June 17, 1579, they went ashore and met Indians. These were probably members of the Miwok tribe from today's Marin or Tuolumne counties . Since Drake had had unpleasant experiences with the South American Indians, he did not want to take any more risks and had a small fort built near the anchorage.
However, the residents turned out to be extremely friendly. One of them brought a basket containing a plume and tobacco as a present. In return, however, he was unwilling to accept anything more than a hat that was thrown at him and fished out of the water. After tents were erected, the Indians came down the hill in a larger group to watch. The men were accompanied by the women. Drake assumed they were friendly because the warriors laid down their weapons when asked to do so. On June 20, two warriors conveyed to Drake that their chief would pay him a visit. So Drake made a present for him. The chief's delegation was led by a man who carried a scepter in front of him, which was decorated with "braided crowns and necklaces made of shells" . Behind him followed the chief, his bodyguard and a large retinue of warriors, as well as women and children, each carrying a present. The English believed that the Indians thought they were gods and that they chose Drake to be their king because they put a crown on him. The women, however, scratched their faces down to the blood with their fingernails.
In the England of Queen Elizabeth the prevailing view was that there was a right to annex a foreign country to the English crown only if the residents expressly requested this or gave their consent. In this case, however, Drake and his men misunderstood the locals, as the Indians from what would later become central California, to which the Miwok tribe belonged, practiced such rituals as part of mourning ceremonies. Today it is believed that the Indians thought Drake and his crew were ghosts who had returned from the dead. Despite this, Drake took possession of the land for his queen as Nova Albion and had a brass plaque made to assert the claims of England for all time. The name Nova Albion probably came from the miles of white cliffs on the stretch of coast that reminded Drake of Dover . The coast was barren and inexorable with constant cloud cover and cold weather. The fog seldom allowed the exact location to be determined.
The Spanish Frigata was scrapped and Drake left the bay on June 23, 1579. The Indians were very saddened by the departure of their guests and accompanied the ship on land as long as they could. The following day Drake called the offshore archipelago to replenish his supplies. He named the islands St. James Islands (today's Farallon Islands ). The documents that had been captured on board the Spanish ship showed him a way across the Pacific Ocean, but the distance turned out to be greater than expected.
In the South Seas
After 68 days at sea, Drake reached an island about 8-9 degrees north on August 30, 1579. It was possibly one of the Palau Islands, which would make Drake its European discoverer. Micronesian residents came from the island in large numbers in canoes to the Golden Hinde . At first the residents were friendly and traded with the English seamen. However, when they took things away without giving anything in return, the English refused to further trade with them. The Micronesians then threw stones and arrows at the ship. As the situation threatened to escalate, Drake fired a warning shot. Some of the locals then turned away. At the same time, however, others reached the ship. Since the Golden Hinde was fully loaded and deep in the water, the bulwark was very low above the waterline and was easy to reach for attackers. Drake eventually fired a broadside that destroyed one of the canoes. About 20 inmates were killed. The English called the island because of their experiences Island of Thieves (German about thieves island ).
The journey continued via Mindanao into the South Seas , southwest towards the Celebes Sea and then towards the Spice Islands (today's Moluccas ). According to the Treaty of Saragossa, this was the border between the Spanish and Portuguese spheres of power. The Spanish cards were now useless. Two local fishermen volunteered to help Drake. So he got into the Moluccan Sea . An emissary of the Sultan of Ternate reached the ship with the invitation to enter the port of Talangam on Ternate. The sultan named Babu used an old Portuguese fortress located there as his palace. Three galleys with 80 rowers each greeted the English ship when it entered port on November 4, 1579 and was towed to the best anchorage. The magnificently dressed sultan turned out to be friendly. He did not care much for the Portuguese, who had murdered his father Hairun of Ternate ten years earlier under the leadership of Lopez de Mesquita , and was ready to cede the clove trade , which he controlled , to the English . He was desperate for allies to prevent the Portuguese from conquering his kingdom. To do this, they should first be expelled from their trading base on the island of Tidore . So he initially promised Drake food. A trade agreement was drawn up the next day .
The Spanish envoy Duenas witnessed Drake's arrival in Talangam: “Captain Francis went to the fortress of Ternate, where he was welcomed benevolently and supplied with certain goods. Immediately afterwards, the King of Ternate opened negotiations with him, declaring that he was not a friend of the Portuguese, but an independent king ... and since Captain Francis had posed himself as a vassal of the English Queen, he would, if it was the Queen's request and she wanted to help him to remove the Portuguese from the region, to allow her to trade in cloves, which the Portuguese had hitherto had. Captain Francis promised on behalf of the Queen that within two years he would cover the sea with ships for whatever they would be needed. The king asked him for a pledge that he would keep his word as a man of honor, which he had given in the name of his queen and Captain Francis thereupon gave him a gold ring with precious stones, armor and a very beautiful helmet. The King gave Captain Francis other gifts, but I couldn't see what they were ... "
Drake took six tons of cloves on board and left Ternate for the Banggai Archipelago, where he anchored on an island near the northeast coast of Celebes (now Sulawesi ). Although the island was small and uninhabited, it offered everything that was needed for the further journey. The Golden Hinde was thoroughly overhauled over the next 26 days. Drake had taken three black men with him, a man and two women, from Guatulco, which he left behind on this island. One of the two women had become pregnant on board on the way to Ternate and there was a risk that the woman, Maria, would give birth while the voyage to West Africa. Under the conditions prevailing on board, however, this would have put the mother and the newborn in danger. Drake probably left the three of them on the island because he could not be sure how long the journey would take and the ship as a whole was heavily overloaded. The English had originally named the island Crab Island , but renamed it Isla Francisca after the second black woman before leaving .
The return journey
The return journey began on December 12, 1579. Drake's team had to use the solder by coral reefs , rocky hilltops and sandbanks in the western part of the Banda forward buttons. When it was finally believed that the shallows had been crossed, all sails were set. However, on the evening of January 9, 1580, at around 8 p.m., the ship ran into a reef . Water broke in and all attempts to free the ship with the help of warpankers failed. Finally, 10 tons of cloves, 5 tons of ginger and allspice and 2 barrels of flour were thrown overboard next to the remaining deck guns. The following day at 4 p.m. the ship was released after the wind had turned and helped to shift the weight. However, there was an aftermath on board. The vicar Francis Fletcher was in the habit of immediately attributing any form of adversity to the divine will. When he began to link this incident with Ned Bright and his testimony at the trial against Thomas Doughty, Drake made an example. He had the vicar chained on the port deck, sat cross-legged on a box in front of them and excommunicated him: “Francis Fletcher… here I excommunicate you from the Church of God and from all its grace and virtues, and surrender you to the devil and his Angels! ” A sign was placed on Fletcher's arm that read : “ Francis Fletcher - ye falsest Knave that liveth. ” (“ Greatest villain under the sun ”) .
On the island of Damar or the island of Romang (both belong to the Barat Daya Islands in what is now the Indonesian province of Maluku ) the catering was supplemented. The Golden Hinde then ran west towards Celebes, but was then driven south into the Sawu Sea by a storm . After all, they are the first European ship to sail along the south coast of Java . With this, Drake proved that Java is not part of Terra Australis . In Tjilatjap (today's Cilacap ) on Java, water and food were once again added.
The crossing of the Indian Ocean began on March 26, 1580 . The African coast was reached on May 21st, and the Cape of Good Hope was circled within sight on June 15th . At this point, due to the lack of water, barrels were set up on deck to collect rain, and there was a desperate need to find a place to replenish drinking water supplies. Until then, the water rations had been reduced to less than half a cup per man per day. On July 22nd, the ship finally anchored off the coast of Sierra Leone . The uninterrupted voyage of 9,700 nautical miles (around 18,000 kilometers) from Java to Sierra Leone is considered one of Drake's greatest seafaring achievements.
On September 26, 1580, Drake reached Plymouth Sound . However, before going into the port of Plymouth import, he called passing fisherman with a question: "Live the Queen yet?" . Drake had to worry about whether the Protestant Elizabeth would have died in his absence and whether the Catholic Mary Stuart, who was closely related to Spain, might have been her successor. Due to the severity and the consequences of his raid for the Spanish crown, the change of power would have presented his circumnavigation and the plundering of the Spanish colonies in a completely different light. Charges of piracy and other serious consequences are realistic concerns. Drake learned that the Queen was fine, but the plague had broken out in Plymouth.
The results of the trip
The financial gain
Upon arrival in Plymouth, Drake was given permission to board the Golden Hinde unsupervised and to take part of the cargo for himself and his crew. He claimed £ 10,000 for himself and an additional £ 14,000 for his men. According to the Spanish Ambassador Bernardino de Mendoza , he later gave 100,000 pounds as a gift to the Queen. Another £ 264,000 went into the Tower of London . Of this, Elisabeth granted the Dutch rebels £ 29,000 as a loan, the trading companies of Ancón and the Levant each received £ 42,000. In April 1581, the total value of the cargo was estimated at £ 600,000. That would have been almost two and a half times the annual tax revenue of the Kingdom of England at the time. The writer Edmund Howes claimed a few years later that Drake's booty would have been enough to wage war with the Spaniards for seven years. Lewis Roberts stated in the 17th century that he had seen documents showing that the shareholders who had participated in Drake's company had made a 4,700% profit. Accordingly, each participant in the company in the London consortium had received £ 4,700 for every £ 100 invested. The merchants of Seville put the value of the cargo of the captured cacafuego alone at over £ 33,000. Therefore, the Spanish ambassador went to Elisabeth to represent the interests of the Spanish merchants who accused Drake and demanded compensation. However, Elisabeth delayed all decisions, so that the Spaniards finally received almost no compensation. They were a bit more courteous towards the Portuguese and at least Nuño da Silva may have been compensated.
Drake's personal success
Protestant preachers spread the news of the first circumnavigation of the world by an Englishman in the Protestant areas of Europe. A leaflet like the one on the left bears witness to the pride in this success, which was celebrated as the success of the “new” Protestantism over the “old” Catholic faith.
Drake was marveled at with curiosity at the English royal court, but was also exposed to the envy and contempt of courtiers. However, the Queen spent a lot of time with Drake, during which she talked extensively with him. The unfamiliar attention obviously went to Drake's head, because, in Sugden's estimation, he was becoming more and more of a show-off, which earned him the scorn of the nobles even more than before. At a reception Edward Radclyffe, 6th Earl of Sussex , reprimanded him and declared: "After all, it is not a great art to raise unarmed Spanish treasure ships" . Drake replied, "He will also take on King Phillip personally." With his pirate voyage to the Caribbean in 1585/86 and his commitment to the fight against the Spanish Armada 1587–1589, he was able to prove this.
On April 4, 1581 Francis Drake was attended by Elizabeth I on board the Golden Hind in Deptford from Monsieur de Marchaumont (an envoy Francois de France , the Duke of Alencon ) for his services and his loyalty to the English crown to beat Knight (see Francis Drake's accolade ).
The geographical discoveries
Important geographical discoveries were made with the second circumnavigation of the world. In this way Drake proved that the Strait of Magellan is not a canal between two continents. When he drove south of the road through the open sea in search of his escort ships, he not only discovered the southernmost point of South America, Cape Horn , but also drove part of the Drake Strait, which was later named after him . While exploring the region north of what is now Baja California , he sailed in areas into which the Spaniards had not penetrated before. Although he could not find the presumed Northwest Passage , the landing on the coast of what is now California and the taking possession of the land as Nova Albion for the English crown is a special result of his trip.
With regard to geographical discoveries, it should be noted that Drake, like all seafarers at the time, only had the simplest means of locating. In the meantime, captured navigators and stolen maps could guide him part of the route, but in the unexplored areas he was dependent on his navigational skills. Only the quadrant , as well as the Jacob's staff and the astrolabe , the two precursors of the sextant , were available to him.
Political and Economic Impact
Due to the difficult accessibility of the new properties in Nova Albion , no move was initially made in England to establish a permanent colony. California was only settled 200 years later by land from Mexico. Spanish Franciscans established missionary stations, next to which military bases ( presidios ) were set up (see History of California ). At first, the English crown did not take advantage of the trade relations with the Sultan of Ternate: After an expedition led by Edward Fenton failed to circumnavigate the Cape of Good Hope in 1582 and the financial losses of the partners (including Francis Drake, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester , and the Muscovy Company ) were immense, the East India trade was initially abandoned. Around 80 years after Drake's visit, the Spice Islands became the property of the Netherlands (see History of the Netherlands ). It was only with the establishment of the British East India Company two decades later that England was able to assert itself against the Portuguese, who had dominated the spice trade up to that point.
The impact of Drake's circumnavigation on English-Spanish-Portuguese relations is undisputed. The invasion of Spanish sovereignty in the Pacific, the plundering of Spanish ships and cities and the open toleration by the English queen were an affront to Spanish world power politics. With his circumnavigation of the world, Francis Drake, as the representative of Protestant England, disregarded the domains of the Catholic states of Spain and Portugal (from 1580 in personal union with Spain), the New World with the treaties of Alcaçovas (1479), Tordesillas (1494) and Saragossa (1529) had divided among themselves. Drake's act was one of the triggers for the open military conflict between Spain and England from 1585 to 1604, which was never declared a war.
The Spanish crown was forced to take extensive defensive measures in the coastal cities of the new colonies and to secure expensive transports of treasure from the New World. A permanent colony was to be established in the Strait of Magellan to protect the west coast of South America. Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa , who had unsuccessfully pursued Drake along the South American coast, founded the Spanish colony Rey Don Felipe in 1583 (on the site of today's Puerto del Hambre ). In 1586 Thomas Cavendish found the remains of this settlement, the inhabitants of which had not found enough food in the inhospitable landscape and were frozen to death. Cavendish was also on a circumnavigation of the world, following Drake's path. On the Desire and accompanied by two other small ships, he attacked and plundered Spanish ships and settlements in South America. He completed his circumnavigation on September 9, 1588 with a financial gain of about £ 120,000.
Critical consideration of the circumnavigation
The illustrated course of the trip corresponds to the current doctrine. Most of the information is from the curriculum vitae of Sir Francis Drake by John Sugden, as well as the notes of fellow travelers, which John Hampden published in the book Sir Francis Drake, Pirate in the Service of the Queen . Nevertheless, there are theories of some scientists who question the course of the journey shown. These are to be named in the following, but not assessed. The theses are too young for that and not yet discussed intensively enough.
Did Francis Drake discover California?
Until the mid-1970s it was considered certain that Drake discovered California and took possession of it for the English Queen, because in 1936 a brass plaque allegedly made by him was found with the inscription: "Let it be known to everyone: June 17, 1579, By the grace of God and in the name of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth of England, and all her successors, I take possession of this kingdom, the king and people of which have freely transferred their right of possession of the whole land of Her Majesty and of which I now know all named Nova Albion. Francis Drake. ”However, Cyril Stanley Smith exposed the record as a fake. Since then, only the records of fellow travelers have been used as evidence of Drake's stay in Nova Albion .
Harry Kelsey has further doubts about the reports in Did Francis Drake Really Visit California? He does not believe that Drake has got beyond what is now Mexico and backs this up with maps, language analysis and hints that parts of the published version of Drake's account are fictitious.
Was Francis Drake in British Columbia?
Samuel Bawlf claims in his book The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake 1577–1580 that Drake was much further north (on the coast of what is now British Columbia ) than has been previously assumed and presents theses based on detailed Dutch maps, which appeared a short time after Drake returned home. Accordingly, all latitudes in Drake's report on North America were deliberately given 10 ° too low in order to keep his actual discoveries secret.
The opaque Doughty affair
The condemnation and execution of Thomas Doughty is also a mystery, the cold-bloodedness of which cannot be reconciled with Francis Drake's other conduct. Even the remarks by Sugden, Hampden and Cropp cannot answer the reason and motivation Drake had for having his former best friend executed. Shortly after the trip, John Doughty, Thomas Doughty's half-brother, tried to bring a lawsuit against Drake. However, the accusation was not accepted by the court. In May 1582 Drake put his hand a complaint against John Doughty, because he had declared publicly that "honored the Queen arrogantesten villains, the most repulsive villains, the falschesten thief and the most cruel murderers" have. Shortly thereafter, Francis Walsingham's secret service arrested a certain Patrick Mason, who claimed to have been hired by the Spanish ambassador to recruit Doughty to kidnap or murder Drake. Subsequently, Doughty was imprisoned in Marshalsea Prison until late October 1583 . His whereabouts, like the entire affair of Thomas Doughty, are still an unexplained detail in connection with Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the world.
literature
- Wolf-Ulrich Cropp: Gold Rush in the Caribbean - In the footsteps of Sir Francis Drake . Delius Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld 2000, ISBN 3-7688-1175-1
(detailed biography of Drake, linked to current research and comprehensively illustrated by a travel report on the trail of the world tour) - John Hampden (ed.): Sir Francis Drake, pirate in the service of the Queen . Heine, 2001, ISBN 3-453-18719-9
(translated original texts by Drake's fellow travelers Francis Fletcher and John Cooke, as well as notes by other contemporaries) - Hans P. Kraus: Sir Francis Drake: A Pictorial Biography: The Famous Voyage: The Circumnavigation of the World, 1577–1580 (English)
(detailed article on circumnavigation with numerous pictures and scans of original documents) - Modern History Sourcebook: Francis Pretty: Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round The World 1580 (engl.)
(Diary of one of the traveling Gentlemen) - OHK Spate: The Spanish Lake: The Pacific since Magellan, Volume I: Chapter 9. The First Irruption: Francis Drake and Chapter 10. Riposte and Reprise (English)
(Detailed description of the circumnavigation and the effects with numerous historical and reconstructed map examples) - John Sugden: Sir Francis Drake . Touchstone-Book, Simon + Schuster, New York 1991, ISBN 0-671-75863-2 (English)
(comprehensive biography of Francis Drake and the representation mainly used for large passages of this article)
Web links
swell
- ↑ Including the Brockhaus story. People, data, backgrounds. Mannheim 2003, p. 208
- ↑ Hampden, pp. 154f
- ↑ Cropp, pp. 109f
- ^ Johann Hinrich Röding: General dictionary of the navy. Nemnich, Hamburg & JJ Gebauer, Halle, 1793–1798 ( Memento from May 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Note: At the time, this was a relatively mild punishment for rebels, given the fact that Doughty himself was one of the “gentlemen” on board - he was originally a lawyer by profession, and after all a member of the “Middle Temple” However, this is an extremely unusual measure.
- ↑ Cropp, p. 150
- ↑ Note: The name probably did not catch on because the discovery of the cape was kept as a state secret in England for years.
- ↑ Note: These guns must have been relatively small calibers, probably 6 pounders. For larger guns there would hardly have been enough room for the return flow when firing. Until then, the large cannons were housed as ballast in the ship's bilge .
- ^ OHK Spate: Oxenham on the Mar del Sur (Engl.)
- ↑ [PDF] Ternate: The Residency And Its Sultanate (PDF; 1.4 MB )
- ↑ Note: In 1605, Babu's son admonished King James I because of Drake's promise. A year later, Ternate was conquered by the Spanish.
- ↑ Note: According to one statement, the Golden Hinde normally had a draft of 9 feet (approx. 2.70 meters). Now, however, she had a draft of 13 feet. On a small ship like the Golden Hinde , this would mean that the gun ports on the lower deck were 15 to 20 centimeters below the waterline. So they must have been sealed by this point.
- ↑ Bob Graham: Determination of Latitude by Francis Drake on the coast Of California in 1579 (Engl.)
- ↑ a b O. HK Spate: The English reprise: Fenton and Cavendish (Engl.)
- ↑ Bryce Walker: The Armada from the Time-Life book series The Seafarers . Time-Life Books, New York, 1984, ISBN 9-06-182-418-4
- ^ German translation of the brass plate from Cropp, p. 162.
- ↑ Cyril Stanley Smith: Metallurgical Report on "Francis Drake's Brass Plate" 1976 (Eng.)
- ↑ Harry Kelsey: Did Francis Drake Really Visit California? . In: The Western Historical Quarterly 21.4 (1990), pp. 444-462
- ^ Samuel Bawlf: The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake 1577-1580 . 2003, ISBN 0-8027-1405-6
- ↑ Note: Oliver Seeler submits a critical consideration of this thesis: Drake in British Columbia? The Turbid Theories of Samuel bawlf (Engl.)
