Francis Drake’s Circumnavigation (1577–1580)

Background

During the early stages of the Age of Discovery, the Treaty of Tordesillas divided the New World into Spanish and Portuguese zones and was signed by the nations' respective monarchs and Pope Alexander VI. However the Protestant Reformation in the early sixteenth century resulted in Protestant nations of Europe that did not recognise Papal spiritual or temporal authority and subsequently rejected the treaty. One of these nations was England, and in the 1560s, King Philip II of Spain's relations with Queen Elizabeth I of England deteriorated, following her restoration of royal supremacy over the Church of England through the Act of Supremacy in 1559.

English merchants and adventurers subsequently engaged in trade missions with the various Spanish posts in the New World. Spain was deeply suspicious of any attempt by foreign powers to trade or establish colonies in their zone of control, going so far as to massacre several hundred French Huguenot inhabitants of Fort Caroline in French Florida in 1565 after they had surrendered.

In 1567, a fleet led by the English privateer Sir John Hawkins conducted a slave trading voyage, transporting enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to sell in Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Americas. Sir Francis Drake, a cousin of Hawkins, accompanied him on the expedition.

Circumnavigation voyage

They finally left Plymouth on 13 December heading South into the Atlantic, but poor winds led them to their first port of call two weeks later at Mogador off Morocco. Whilst assembling a Pinnace there Drake lost a man to Moorish raiders.

After passing the coast of Portuguese Brazil, Drake's fleet suffered great attrition after storms twice scattered the fleet; so on 13 May Drake put in to a bay and anchored off Cape Tres Puntas in the San Jorge Gulf.

Heading further north, Drake recovered from his wounds and spent many weeks observing for settlements to raid.

On 5 December he viewed the small Spanish settlement of Valparaíso, a coastal town with a number of houses and a church.

Drake headed North to seek a shortcut back to England via the hypothetical Strait of Anián, a supposedly navigable shortcut connecting the Pacific and Atlantic. The strait was speculated to exist at about 40 degrees north.

Aftermath

Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. Drake however was not the first Englishman to sail the Pacific Ocean; this fell to Magellan's master gunner during the 1519 expedition.

Drake ended up having raided or plundered six coastal towns; he took thirteen ships, plundered them, used them and either released or scuttled them. He ran aground another twelve in Callao.

Elizabeth awarded Drake a knighthood aboard Golden Hind in Deptford on 4 April 1581; the dubbing being performed by a French diplomat, Monsieur de Marchaumont, who was negotiating for Elizabeth to marry the King of France's brother, Francis, Duke of Anjou. By getting the French diplomat involved in the knighting, Elizabeth was gaining the implicit political support of the French for Drake's actions. After receiving his knighthood Drake unilaterally adopted the armorials of the ancient Devon family of Drake of Ash, near Musbury.

The venture raised an enormous amount of money for the nation's coffers. As a result, the Queen declared that all written accounts of Drake's voyages were to become the 'Queen's secrets of the Realm'. In addition Drake and the other participants of his voyages were sworn to their secrecy on the pain of death; she intended to keep Drake's activities away from the eyes of rival Spain. Drake presented the Queen with a jewel token commemorating the circumnavigation.

Spanish reaction

After Drake's successful voyage, the Spanish now felt vulnerable in their colonies. Francisco de Toledo realised the weakness and wanted to build a series of fortifications on the coast for protection against foreign pirates. He also established 'la Armada del Mar del Sur' (the Southern Fleet) in the port of El Callao. The majority of investment however was for defences and lookouts in the Strait of Magellan. In order to seal the passage and having feared they were under English control, Toledo sent a squadron with two ships under Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa not only to explore but also take the region as a possession for Spain. They scrupulously explored the strait, trying to catch out any English they thought were hiding, though none were there. They also surveyed where to build fortifications. Gamboa then directly proceeded to Spain to inform Philip II of the dangers of a seaway open to his European enemies. Once this has been done, approval was given for remedial action and in 1584 an expedition was launched. This however achieved very little; two settlements including Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe were doomed to failure. Gamboa was captured by English privateers two years later.

War

War between England and Spain officially began in 1585 with English involvement in the Dutch Revolt and the later execution of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587. The Queen ordered Drake to lead the next expedition to attack the Spanish New World in a kind of preemptive strike. Drake sailed to the West Indies and in 1586 captured Santo Domingo, Cartagena de Indias and raided St. Augustine. News of this reached Spain and this now further buoyed an invasion of England by Philip.

Philip's project to send an invasion 'Armada' against England soon became known; Drake was to lead yet another preemptive strike on Spanish ships being prepared for it in Cadiz in April 1587. A number were destroyed and the raid, which Drake described as his 'Singeing the King of Spain's Beard' delayed the Armada for a year. This allowed the English to mobilise their defence and Drake was also a leading player during the Armada campaign. Drake's ability to attack England's Catholic enemies made him a hero at home and the terror of the Spanish, who called him 'El Draque' (The Dragon). King Philip put a price some 20,000 ducats for anyone who could eliminate Drake.

Nova Albion claim

The precise location of the port in Nova Albion was carefully guarded to keep it secret from the Spaniards, and several of Drake's maps may have been altered to this end. All first-hand records from the voyage, including logs, paintings and charts, were lost when Whitehall Palace burned in 1698. A bronze plaque inscribed with Drake's claim to the new lands – Drake's Plate of Brass – fitting the description in his account, was discovered in Marin County, California but was later declared a hoax. Now a National Historic Landmark, the officially recognised location of Drake's New Albion is Drakes Bay, California. Some writers have suggested that Queen Elizabeth's desire to maintain secrecy of the locations and extent of Drake's north Pacific explorations led to suppression and obfuscation of the reports. Nevertheless, many of historians, geographers, linguists, anthropologists and other professionals have put forward their ideas of where Drake landed covering the coast from Alaska to northern Mexico.

The claim of Nova Albion occupied a significant place in British geopolitical considerations for centuries and even strengthened Britain's entitlement to the fur trade commerce along the Northwest Coast. Its influential assertions came in the Nootka Crisis with Spain in 1789 and also negotiated the 1846 Oregon Treaty which extended the border of Canada along the 49th parallel to the Pacific.

Legacy

The voyage intrigued the likes of Gerardus Mercator who was often in contact with Abraham Ortelius regarding Drake's discovery of 'Nova Albion', although it was frustrating for them both given the secrecy of Drake's voyage.

The earliest detailed account of the voyage was The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake, published in 1628, which was compiled by Drake's nephew, based on his uncle's journal, the notes of Francis Fletcher, and other sources. Nineteenth-century historians had to rely on the vague accounts supplied by Drake's navigator, Nuna da Silva, to the Spanish Viceroy in 1579, and by John Wynter, to the British navy. It was only in 1909 that da Silva's detailed log was discovered in the archives of Seville by Zelia Nuttall. This log gave historians the best insight into Drake's voyage and also what life was like in the Elizabethan Navy.

With the 400th anniversary of the circumnavigation, a replica of the Golden Hind named the Golden Hinde was built starting in 1973. It sailed from Plymouth on her maiden voyage in late the following year, arriving on 8 May 1975 in San Francisco, to commemorate Sir Francis Drake's claiming of New Albion in California.

The circumnavigation was depicted along with the replica of the Golden Hind in the 1980 film Drake's Venture.