Drake' s flagship the Golden Hind, ex-Pelican, was an 80-ft. vessel, carrying 80 people, a forge and all
into an appalling storm out of the northeast, which raged almost without intermission for the next 52 days . Running before its violence, the squadron was driven far to the south, where on 30 September the Marigold was lost with all hands. Last seen "spooming along before the sea," she became the first of a long count of ships lost with their people in the bitter seas off Cape Horn. Struggling back north in somewhat moderated weather, the surviving Golden Hind and Elizabeth took shelter and anchored in a cove a little north of the Pacific entrance of the Strait of Magellan. But the gale, reviving, hit them with such violence that the ships ' anchors would not hold and they were driven out to sea-the Elizabeth to re-enter the Strait, and the Hind to drive southward in the open sea. Fletcher describes the scene: The seas . . . were rowled up from the depths, even from the roots of the rocks, as if it had been a scroll of parchment . .. and being aloft were carried in a most strange manner and abundance,asfeathersordriftsofsnow,by theviolenceofthe winds, to water the tops of high and lofty mountains. Those who have been in extreme weather at sea will recognize that ultimate state in which great drifts of sea become airborne. The Elizabeth had had enough. She ran home to England, which she reached in June the next year. Her captain, John Winter, who had been foreman of the jury that unanimously convicted Doughty, backpedaled energetically to distance himself from the execution and, with equal energy, blamed his crew for forcing him to abandon Drake halfway through the voyage. Available evidence suggests strongly that Winter himself was the quitter and, further, that another man who straggled home later, claiming he had been abandoned in a small boat by Drake in the Pacific, actually was abandoned by Winter off the coast of Brazil, where he was eventually recovered. (Winter is recorded as losing a boat there.) All other experience of Drake shows that his men would stand by him through practically anything, and he by them. ¡¡A
Most Large and Free Scope"
On 28 October 1578, a seaworn vessel came to anchor in the lee of a mountainous island at the southernmost tip of the archipelago that ends the continent-the island of Cape Hom. Her ship's company gave thanks to God for their deliverance, and the record tells us that Drake immediately set about gathering herbs ashore to cure the incipient scurvy which had begun to break out among the ship 's crew, starved for fresh fruit and vegetables. Water casks were filled at the island springs and towed out to the ship, firewood was gathered for the ship 's stove, and we may be sure clothes and bedding were hung out everywhere in the welcome rays of the sun . Francis Drake went ashore to take careful observations with his astrolabe, an instrument practically useless at sea, but very accurate for sighting the sun or stars from a platform that did not weave and stagger through shouldering seas. In a two-day stay, he determined that he was on the southernmost land any European had ever reached, and in clear weather he could see that none of the islands or headlands around them reached as far south as this island he had come to. Hounded southward by gales of irresistible violence, he had come to the southernmost land-and found open sea to the southward beyond it. Fletcher, writing the official history, notes that "being chased along by the winds" was interpreted by Drake "as though God had sent them of SEA HISTORY 80, WINTER 1996-97
things needed to make her selfsufficient f or the voyage. Drawing by Ray Aker.
purpose to the end which ensued." The narrative continues: The uttermost cape or headland of all these islands, stands near in 56 degrees without which there is no main, nor island to be seen to the southwards: but that the Atlantic Ocean and the South Sea, meet in a most large and free scope. Up to this time the Strait of Magellan had been thought to be a passage through the solid landmass of a great southern continent, Terra Australis. If it were blocked by the Spanish, entry to the Pacific would be blocked. But this was not the case. Drake carried this great news home with him to England. He romped up the Pacific coast of South America stopping to take cargoes of Chilean wine, and gold and silver from the mines. Once, coming on eight llamas laden with silver, they "offered our service and became drovers," carrying the silver down to the waiting ship. Their greatest haul, however, was the taking of the Pacific galleon Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion with a cargo that more than paid for the whole voyage. Sailing on across the Pacific, Drake also arranged a treaty with the Sultan of the Spice Islands to assure England's direct role in the spice trade.The Golden Hind arrived home on 26 September 1580, after two years, nine months and two weeks at sea. Drake brought nearly the entire ship's company home safely, a record unparalleled in ocean voyaging. His first question on arriving home was: "Is the Queen still alive?" She was, and early in the following year Drake was knighted on the decks of the Golden Hind. Elizabeth had great fun , as the sword was handed to her, in citing Philip's demand thatshechopoffDrake's head. The ship was then in adrydock built for her on the south bank of the Thames below London. She was to be preserved as a monument, but rotted away before a hundred years had passed. Her fame, however, and the lessons to be learned from her sailing live on today.
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The idea of the world 's oceans as a commons, like the village green that is used by all, is so well established today that it comes as a shock to realize that it is only in the last 500 years of the 5,000-year story of civilization that people began fo think of the sea as free and open to all. Ancient navigators in the Mediterranean divided their sea into separate basins of commerce and transshipped their goods on reaching the limits of their trading areas-and this pattern persisted. The idea of the free scope of the seas was the predecessor for the concept of freedom of the seas, that is , freedom for all comers. This condition became a reality throughoutthe worldwherever there was water enough to float a British warship, as the saying went-only a little less than 200 years ago. Drake's "famous voyage" became famous not just in England, but throughout Europe, wherever people were struggling for freedom to determine their own destinies , from the provinces of Holland, to Bohemia far inland. For by his sailing Drake had defied Earth 's dominant tyranny-and survived! And the message of that voyage has echoed down the hallways of time. People tookheartinDrake 's story in 1940, when British air/sea power stood alone against the most monstrous tyranny of our own age and kept the ocean road open for the ultimate defeat of Nazi Germany. Were people deluded or wrong-headed to call on Drake 's message then? I don 't think so, not for one minute. !, For further reading see Book Locker, page 42 .
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