Francis Drake was sent to live with his wealthier kinsman, Sir John Hawkins, in Plymouth, when he was still a child, so Drake went to sea with his cousins John and William, in his uncle’s ship. Hawkins was a successful merchant and also had a letter of marque giving him permission to raid French and Spanish ships, so Drake and his cousins grew up knowing that you could freely commit piracy if you had friends at court. By the time he was twenty years old, Drake had enough money to invest in trade goods, and he took part in several of Hawkins’ trips to Africa to acquire slaves for sale in the West Indies. Sometimes the slaves were purchased, sometimes the slaves were taken by force.

In 1567, Hawkins assembled seven ships, two of which were supplied by the queen, to break the Spanish lock on the West Indies. When the local governor of Rio de la Hacha refused to give Hawkins permission to trade, he dispatched 200 men to take the town, at which point the governor became a convert to the principle of free trade, a pattern that was repeated in other ports. Hawkins’ ships were trapped by accident at San Juan de Ulua by a Spanish fleet, and although Drake was able to get his ship out safely, Hawkins had to leave 100 Englishmen behind. Hawkins’ accusation of desertion created a serious rift between them, and the scandal haunted Drake until he died.

A later voyage enabled Drake to learn from the British and French pirates in the West Indies, who had reacted to the Spanish introduction of the convoy system by using small, fast ships based on a mother ship to perform quick raids on isolated ports. As a result, he returned in 1571 with a tiny 25 ton pinnace, whose shallow draft enabled him to raid small settlements along the central American coast. The profits funded another voyage in 1572 with a small ship and four pinnaces. Despite being familiar with territory, Drake’s attacks were badly planned, and the voyage was a series of failures until he finally captured a Spanish treasure train with the help of French pirates. Drake had lost four pinnaces, and half of his crew, including his brothers Joseph and John, which showed that Drake was brave and determined, but confirmed his weakness as a fleet captain.

Most of Drake’s new wealth was used up outfitting three ships at his own cost to take part in Essex’s 1575 Ireland campaign, which won him friends at Elizabeth’s court, who persuaded her to allow Drake to lead an expedition that would sail around the tip of South America while exploring the coast. The fleet consisted of four ships with a total of 170 men and it left England on December 13, 1577. The fleet carried no trading goods since it was expected to capture cargoes, not trade for them. The tedium of the voyage across the Atlantic drove him into increasingly frequent disagreements with one of his co-captains, whom he later had tried and executed for mutiny, although his authority was unclear.

By the time Drake left the Straits of Magellan, he only had 80 men left, and one ship. On December 5, 1578, Drake captured a small ship at Valapraiso with 200,000 pesos in gold, and more important, charts and a pilot who knew the Pacific coast. He then continued to sail up the Pacific coast, looting small ports for whatever he could take before the opposition had time to gather. The tally of prizes was not that impressive until they captured two ships in late February with a huge amount of gold and silver.

It is difficult to trace Drake’s voyage through the Pacific to England since it was declared a state secret after he returned home, therefore the records were either heavily edited or the wrong map was shown. It is believed that Drake traveled up to California and then crossed the Pacific, but the exact route remains a mystery. However, any claims that Drake traveled to Upper California are highly unlikely given that he did not have any charts of the area, was not a great sailor, and had a leaky ship. Instead, he probably followed his Spanish charts up to Lower California and then the Philippines. If he kept a detailed log it has never been published. The ship sailed from Java to the Cape of Good Hope in two months, and finally arrived at Plymouth on September 26, 1580, almost three years after leaving. Surprisingly, the Spanish ambassador made few complaints about Drake’s raids, since it was a minor matter given the size of the Spanish Empire, and no one wanted to admit that mighty Spain could not capture Drake.

The Queen officially notified Drake that she was displeased with him, but unofficially told him not to worry. Drake’s diary and map of the expedition were given to the Queen, who ordered it kept secret. Even after the Queen and the expedition’s investors received their shares, there was enough left over to make Drake one of the richest men in the country. Drake proved to be very generous to influential members of the court, but was rather tight to his crew. Like any criminal, his stolen wealth was to buy legitimacy, through property, namely his huge investment in property and mills in Plymouth, and a seat in the 1581 parliament. His attempts to buy favor were not entirely successful, since he was snubbed by powerful men, such as Burghley and Lord Sussex, who viewed him as a pirate. However, the Queen clearly liked him since she knighted him. Although he remained in England, Drake continued to invest in trading expeditions.

As matters worsened between Spain and England, the Queen approved sending a large fleet to the Moluccas. The investors in the raid included the Queen, Drake, Leicester, the Hawkins brothers, and Walter Raleigh. Drake was put in command of the fleet of two dozen ships, including the 600 ton royal navy vessel the Elizabeth Bonaventure.

Drake took the fleet to Vigo, a Spanish port, where he negotiated for the release of a large number of English ships. By this time, Drake’s command style was fully formed, he was brave and ruthless, but hated details, and he preferred to deal with his subordinates through a handful of close friends and family members. He lingered too long in Panama, and managed to miss both divisions of the Spanish treasure fleet. Drake then led the fleet looting through the West Indies and Florida, but even when the men were allowed to plunder to their hearts’ content, Spanish merchants proved unable to scrape together large enough ransoms to pay for such a huge fleet. Worse, plague and disease killed hundreds, so the captains persuaded Drake to return to England, reaching Plymouth on July 28, 1586. In the end, the expedition was not a commercial success, since it lost money and 40% of the participants did not return, but from a military perspective, it definitely caused a great deal of damage to Philip’s South American possessions.

By the winter of 1586/7, war with Spain looked increasingly likely. As a result, Drake spent the winter and spring assembling a fleet of 16 ships that included four royal warships and several of Drake’s own ships. His main target was the Spanish treasure fleet. On April 19, Drake boldly attacked Cadiz during broad daylight, and although a few merchant ships managed to make it to safety under the forts’ guns, the English were able to plunder at will. Four Spanish ships were added to the fleet, while another two dozen were set on fire. Drake then took Sagres, near Cape St. Vincent, on May 5, and used it as a base from which to attack Spanish shipping, sinking 50-100 ships of varying size, thus denying Phillip badly needed timber for his invasion fleet. Drake then returned to England with his prize, where, officially, he was in disgrace.

When the Spanish Armada approached England, Drake was made one of the four squadron commanders, although he played a minor role in the battle.

Realizing that Spain would be defenseless until the Armada returned, the Queen wanted Drake, who had remained a favorite despite his lack of distinction in the battle, to lead a fleet to capture Spain’s treasure fleet since England desperately needed money to pay for raising an army and a fleet. Her high opinion of Drake was shared by the Spanish, but not by the English captains who had fought alongside him. Drake wanted to help restore Dom Antonio to the throne of Portugal, but planning took a long time, and the English fleet was badly in need of repair. Spanish ships began returning to Spain, so the Queen resolved to destroy those ships. This was another commercial venture, paid for by a group of investors including Drake. Priority was to be given to the destruction of the Spanish ships and the capture of the Azores. The fleet had roughly 100 ships, carrying almost 20,000 men, and sailed from Plymouth on April 18, 1589. Drake and Norris, the captain of the land forces, ignored the Queen’s orders. When they landed at Pinoche in order to march on Lisbon, they found that there was no popular support for Dom Antonio, and that the Spanish were ready for them, so the English army was forced to rejoin the fleet. Although Drake had organized his fleet into squadrons like Howard had done when fighting the Armada, he had never practiced squadron maneuvers, therefore they survived battle with the Spanish fleet only because of a favorable wind.

When the remnants of the fleet finally straggled back into Plymouth, the Queen was furious that Drake and Norris had managed to lose dozens of ships and thousands of men without damaging the main Spanish fleet. In fact, he had to go to London to formally answer charges against him. This fiasco should have proven that he did not know how to command a fleet, did not want to learn, and was basically a pirate.

After Drake’s return to England, another Spanish invasion of England seemed likely, and Drake’s fellow captains were busy capturing ships, any foreign ships actually, so these were happy years for England’s officially sanctioned pirates. The Queen’s support for this policy of war through piracy is demonstrated by her appointing Drake to serve as Commissioner for the Causes of Reprisal in 1590, which meant that he was responsible for settling disputes between the English captains and foreign merchants.

In early 1594, the Queen and her advisors decided to send a fleet under Drake and Hawkins to attack Panama with a large army. Phillip was aware of the plan, and warned his governors in Santo Domingo, Havana and Panama. Actually, the Spanish government was tired of English pirates raiding Spanish colonies, and had already started strengthening the colonies. Hawkins had been ill for some time and died as the fleet was preparing to attack Puerto Rico, which proved to be well-defended, so the English were driven off after a fierce battle. Soon after, Drake came down with dysentery. Thomas Drake was named his heir and executor, and Drake died on January 28, 1596. None of the surviving captains knew what to do, and all of their raids had failed, so the ships made their own way home. The expedition was a disaster, but it was unlikely that Drake could have coped with the increased defenses of the Spanish colonies even if he had lived.

Little is really known about Drake, he did not keep a diary, and few of his peers wrote about him, none who knew him well. Although he was brave and a good seaman, even the Queen realized he was a little paranoid, and she never gave him an independent command after his first great success, which was his only great success, despite his reputation as a master pirate. However, Drake symbolized the English navy to the Spanish, so Spain rejoiced much more than England mourned when he died. In fact, Drake’s fame is due to his portrayal as a great pirate in two well-read Spanish works, and the books Sir Francis Drake Revived by Philip Nichols (Drake’s chaplain and mouthpiece) and The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake by Nichols, and revised by Drake’s nephew, Francis Drake. They, and later writers, justified Drake’s piracy by saying that he personally regretted committing piratical acts, but did so in order to defend Protestantism. He became one of Victorian England’s great English heroes. What is interesting is that the Drake myth started because Spanish victims exaggerated his effect in order to push the Spanish king to improve the colonies’ defenses.

Related Movies:

The Sea Hawk (1940)
Directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Errol Flynn and Brenda Marshall
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, English privateers raid oppose the powerful Spanish empire by capturing its treasure ships filled with gold from South America with the Queen's unoffical support. King Phillip of Spain is tired of the endless raids and prepares an Armada to conquer England. However, one of the privateers learns of the secret armada and races to warn the Queen. (please click here to read the review)

further reading:

Sir Francis Drake: The Queen’s Pirate-Harry Kelsey, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1998.

It is a well-researched book that offers a large number of maps that show Drake’s routes, which is helpful for those of us who did not excel in geography during high school. However, the author devotes too much time to discussing the theories and arguments of previous writers on the subject, which would be better used as footnotes, so that they do not slow down the narrative. It provides a good explanation of the origins of the Drake myth, and a map of his voyages around the world.

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