Francis Drake: the second voyage around the world

On 26 September 1580, a small ship entered the English port of Plymouth. By the sailors’ count, it was Sunday. For the people of the city, it was Monday. The difference of one day was proof that they had sailed west all the way round the earth. The ship was the Golden Hind and her captain was Francis Drake. According to the World History Encyclopedia, it was the second complete voyage around the world, after Magellan’s expedition (1519–1522).

Five ships and 164 men

According to the World History Encyclopedia, Drake was born around 1540 in the English county of Devon. The most detailed account of the voyage is The World Encompassed, which Drake’s nephew compiled from the notes of the ship’s chaplain, Francis Fletcher, and published in 1628. The Hakluyt Society reissued it in 1854, together with Fletcher’s unpublished manuscript and the accounts of other shipmates.

According to it, the fleet had five ships: the largest, the Pelican, on which Drake himself sailed; the Elizabeth, 80 tons; the Marigold, 30 tons; the supply ship Swan, 50 tons; and the small vessel Christopher, 15 tons. In all, 164 men were aboard. The fleet left Plymouth on 15 November 1577, but a severe storm broke the masts of two ships and all had to return. After repairs, they set out again on 13 December 1577.

The fleet passed the west coast of Africa and the Cape Verde Islands, crossed the Atlantic to South America and moved south along the coast. On the way, the Swan and the Christopher were emptied and abandoned, so only three ships reached the Strait of Magellan.

The Strait of Magellan

According to The World Encompassed, on 20 August 1578 the fleet reached a high cape at the mouth of the strait. Sea water struck its grey, sloping rocks and leapt up like the spouts of whales. It was here that Drake changed the name of his ship from the Pelican to the Golden Hind. According to the book, the name honoured his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton.

The strait was four, three or two leagues wide in places, and a little over one league at its narrowest. It had many bends and the winds were strong. On the islands in the strait, the sailors found countless penguins, which Fletcher describes as birds that cannot fly, with small stumps in place of wings. At night they saw a volcano spewing fire on an island. On 6 September the three ships left the strait and entered the Pacific Ocean.

A 52-day storm

The very next day, 7 September, a storm began that, according to the book, lasted until 28 October, “full 52 days”. The ships were driven south beyond latitude 57 degrees. According to John Cooke’s account, the Marigold was lost in late September. On the night of 8 October the Elizabeth was lost too. Her captain, John Winter, turned back through the strait and reached England on 2 June 1579. The Golden Hind was now alone.

The voyage also had a geographical result. Fletcher writes that the land south of the strait, which maps showed as a great unknown continent, was in fact “broken islands” with open passages between them. He also writes that in late October the night in those southern regions lasted only two hours.

The west coast of America and “Nova Albion”

When the storm eased, Drake turned north along the coasts of Chile and Peru. According to the World History Encyclopedia, on this voyage he captured several Spanish ships, among them the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, off the coast of Peru in March 1579.

The ship then went so far north that even in June the hills were covered with snow and the sailors kept complaining of bitter cold. According to The World Encompassed, at 38 degrees 30 minutes north latitude they found a suitable harbour, where the ship lay at anchor from 17 June to 23 July 1579 and was repaired. Drake named the region Nova Albion, meaning “New Albion”. According to Hakluyt’s account, there were two reasons: the white banks and cliffs facing the sea, and the fact that Albion was also an old name for England. The World History Encyclopedia places the spot near present-day San Francisco.

According to Hakluyt, the people’s houses were built over round pits dug in the ground, with poles joined together that met at the top like a conical roof, and the fire burned in the middle of the house. The book says that on the day of departure the local people climbed to the hilltops, lit fires and watched the ship for a long time.

The Spice Islands

The Golden Hind then crossed the Pacific. According to the book, in October they passed the Philippine island of Mindanao, and on 3 November 1579 they sighted the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, described as “four high pointed islands” where cloves were plentiful. A deputy of the ruler of Ternate came out in a boat himself and invited Drake to his island. Several tons of cloves were loaded on board here.

On the night of 9 January 1580, while the ship was running under full sail, she suddenly struck an underwater reef and stuck fast. According to a short contemporary manuscript account, the ship remained stuck from eight o’clock at night until four o’clock the next afternoon. According to Hakluyt, three tons of cloves, eight cannon and some flour and beans were thrown into the sea to lighten her. Then the wind suddenly changed, the sails were set and the ship slid off the reef and floated again. They then reached Java, where, according to the same manuscript, rice, coconuts and bananas were obtained from the local people.

Homeward

Crossing the Indian Ocean, the ship passed the Cape of Good Hope on 18 June 1580. According to Hakluyt, the sailors found it “the fairest cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth”, and wrote that it was not as dangerous as its reputation. On 22 July they reached Sierra Leone in West Africa, where they got fresh supplies and saw “oysters growing on trees”.

Finally, on 26 September 1580, the Golden Hind reached Plymouth. According to The World Encompassed, the voyage took “two years, ten months and some few days”. According to the World History Encyclopedia, on 4 April 1581 Queen Elizabeth I knighted Drake on the deck of the same ship at Deptford on the River Thames, near London. Drake died on 28 January 1596 at Portobelo in Panama.

Next instalment: Willem Barentsz: wintering in the ice of the Arctic.