Frances+Drake

Sir Frances Drake (1540-1596) by Miss Hill
Sir Frances Drake was an English sea captain who is famous for being the second person to sail all the way around the world and for defeating the Spanish Armada in a war against Spain. He was a hero to the English but the Spanish thought he was a pirate. This is because he attacked many of their ships and towns and stole their treasure. The English government liked him doing this because they were at war with Spain and so they made it legal for him to do it, as long as he gave some of the treasure to them.

In 1577 Queen Elizabeth I sent him to attack the Spanish Colonies in the Americas. On this voyage he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to Argentina in South America, then down to the southern tip of the continent and crossed through to the Pacific Ocean by the Straits of Magellan. Many of his ships were damaged so he went on in the only ship left,. Then he sailed north back up the other side of South America, (the eastern coast) attacking Spanish towns all the way. Off the coast of Lima he attacked a treasure ship carrying 25,000 gold pesos, (worth about 10 million Australlian dollars) and captured another one carrying 36kg of gold, and treasure chests full of jewels and silver.

The Golden Hind then sailed along the coast of North America and from there across the Pacific to the Moluccas in Indonesia. After that he sailed across the Indian Ocean to the tip of southern Africa, and from there he sailed back to Plymouth in England with a ship full of treasure, arriving in 1580. Queen Elizabeth I was very pleased with him and made him a Knight.

Later on in 1588 Sir Frances Drake defeated the Spanish when they tried to invade England with the Spanish Armada.

You can see a map of Frances Drake's circumnavigation of the world [|here].

He died in 1596 and was buried at sea in a lead coffin. Nobody has ever found the coffin.

References:
[] The pictures of Sir Frances Drake and the Spanish Armada are from Wikipedia Commons. They may be copied, but their source should be credited to