8-4FrancesDrake

=Who is Sir Francis Drake? What was his legacy?= //Answer prepared by: Bradley S.//

Sir Francis Drake - Admiral, Englishman, Hero Sir Francis Drake’s life was centered on the sea. He was born in Tavistock, Devonshire; a town about 15 miles north from the port of Plymouth, in 1540. Perhaps this proximity to a port city contributed to Drake’s interest in sailing. In fact, he was the navigator on a merchant ship in the 1550s. By the time 1567 rolled around, Drake was on one of the first English slaving voyage to the New World. However, the voyage was attacked by Spanish warships, and only two boats survived. This attack may have led Drake to see the Spanish as the enemy later in his life. Despite the attack, Drake made two profitable trading voyages to the West Indies in 1570 and 1571.

Queen Elizabeth must have noticed Drake’s successes, because in 1572 she commissioned Drake to sail as a privateer, or a governmentally supplied pirate, for England. He was put in the command of two ships. He would use these ships to plunder the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean, and soon he raided and captured Nombre de Dios, a city in modern-day Panama. This raid brought him attention, and in 1577, Queen Elizabeth commissioned Drake to plunder the Spanish colonies on the Pacific coast, farther than any other English explorer had gone before. He started his expedition with five ships, but by the time he reached the Pacific Ocean, he only had one ship left. He plundered the west coast of South America, and traveled farther up the west coast than any other European. Unable to find a passage, Drake headed west and returned to England in 1580, his ship full of Spanish loot and with the honor of being the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, or sail around the world. In 1581 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.

After a few more raids against the Spanish, Drake returned to England to fight the Spanish Navy (not the Armada, yet). In 1587 he snuck into Cadiz, a Spanish port, and destroyed 30 warships docked there. He was appointed Vice-Admiral, and this is the position of power in which he would fight the Spanish Armada. The English were horribly out-numbered, but were able to defeat the Spanish, thanks to a brilliant maneuver by Drake. A few isolated Galleons had drifted away from the rest of the Armada, and Drake led an attack on the ships. The ships tried to flee from Drake, but since Drake’s ships had the wind on their side, the ships were forced to retreat into the North Sea. The Spanish ships soon went into a state of confusion, and were forced to retreat. Some time after the battle, Drake went on another raid against the West Indies. However, the Spanish ships were ready for him, and the raid was a failure. Drake died on January 28, 1596, off the coast of Puerto Rico, and his body was buried at sea. England lost a brilliant admiral, a brave sailor, and an English hero that day. __Works Cited__ Garcia, Jesus, Donna M. Ogle, C. Frederick Risinger, Joyce Stevos, and Winthrop D. Jordan. Creating America: A History of the United States. Evanston, Illinois: McDougal Littell, 2002. Print.

"Sir Francis Drake." bbc.co.uk. BBC. 8 Mar 2009 http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/drake_francis.shtml

"Sir Francis Drake." elizabethan-era.org.uk. 8 Mar 2009 http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/sir-francis-drake.htm

Photo courtesy of: http://www.indrakeswake.co.uk/Images/Websize/NationalPortraitGalleryPortrait.jpg Photo courtesy of: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Spanish_Armada.jpg