Left: Drake's California Harbor. This re-construction drawing is based on a contemporary view-map ofDrake's careening harbor and modern photographs from the overlook Drake used. Below: The White Cliffs of Nova Albion . Drake named this area Nova Albion after the white cliffs that reminded his crew ofEngland's coast. Here the cliffs are seen from sea under the persistent summer fog, also described in the voyage accounts. The gap is the entrance to Drakes Estero, a secure harbor. These features are not found in proposed alternate sites.
Bawlf's publications overlook much m odern scholarship abo ut Drake in the N orth Pacific and igno re most of the contemporary acco unts. H e altered rhe evidence he deemed useful by following a series of "rules" created by a supposed-Elizabethan co nspiracy, which he claims to have decoded, and added narrative from pure speculation . H ow did Bawlf succeed in having his ideas spread through publication in three countries? H e began by publishing a six-page ve rsion in the Vancouver Sun newspaper in 2000 . T hat articl e attracted considerable publi c interest. H e then self-published his first book, Sir Francis Drake's Secret Voyage to the Northwest Coast ofAmerica, AD 1579, to explain his ideas in detail. T he book is expensive at $ 100 Canadian (approximately $60 US D ). In it, Bawlf printed the nam es of eighteen scholars who reviewed drafts of the manuscrip t bur never mentioned if they agreed with his ideas. Bawlf no ted that five (unnamed) reviewers wro te to the British Co lumbia government supporring his "principal co nclusio n." T his first book was not widely reviewed. One lone favo rable review helped persuade a commercial publisher to print his seco nd book.
THE DRAKE NAVIGATORS GUILD The Drake Navigators G uild is a no n-profit research organization which brings together perso ns fro m many fields of scholarship to study rh e earl y exploration of rhe west coast of N orth America. Founded in 1949, its members and associates include practical seamen and researchers in fields as diverse as nautical history, cartography, hydrography, meteo rology, ship construction, seamanship, navigation, biology, zoology, archaeology, ethnography, museology, and Chinese ceramics. The G uild has identified the location of Francis Drake's harbo rof 1579, where Drake repaired his Go/den Hind and m ade the first English claim to the land known as Drake's C ove in Drake's Bay, thirty miles north of San Francisco. Ir has also inves tigated M anila galleon coas tal contacts, including the 1595 shipwreck of Sebas tian Rodriguez Cermeii o's San Agustin. For more information , contact The Guild c/o its Pres ident: Edward Von der Porten , 143 Springfield Drive, San Francisco, CA 94 132-1 456; e- mail edandsaryl@aol.com.
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The Secret Voyage ofSir Francis Drake, 15 77-1580, reads qui re differently from the first book. Ir starts with a short introduction to Drake and his times and emph as izes England's quest for a northwest passage. A co nventi onal hi sto ry of Drake's circumnavigation , its afrermath, and Drake's late r life fo llow. No r until page 26 5 did Bawlf begin to introduce his ideas regarding Drake's time in the Pacifi c No rthwes t. At this point, he narrated his version of Drake's explorations. W hile the first book often started with hypotheses, soon treated them as pro babilities, and eventually used wo rds like "now we know," "undoub tedly, " and "now revealed," this book simply presents Bawlf's co nclusio ns as fac t. In the end notes he often cited his first book, which most reviewers and readers wo uld not have available. Even if it we re, strong familiarity with the so urces wo uld be required fo r an effective evaluation. Samuel Bawlfhas created a new Drake myth . It creates misin for matio n, a "history" built on specul ation and derived from hypotheses based o n the thinnest of mani pulated evidence. Yer it will survive in used-book stores, be referenced by unsuspecting students, and be quoted in discussions of Drake's Wes t Coas t landing place long after we have all crossed the bar. CREDITS: The late D rake scholar Raymond Aker's analysis of Bawlf's case provided much information for this article. Fellow members of the research group the Drake Navigators G uild provided input and reviewed the m anuscript.
President ofthe Drake Navigators Guild, Edward Von der Porten has worked as a naval historian, nautical archaeologist, museum director, and educator. He has extensively researched topics on pre- Viking and Viking shipbuilding, Henry VIII's Mary Rose and the development of big-gun warship, Francis Drake's California encampment, early M anila galleon wrecks, early Chinese trade porcelains, and the WWII German navy. SEA HISTORY l 06, WINTER 2004