rhar rhe ships' anchors would nor hold and rhey were driven out rn sea-the Elizabeth rn re-enter rhe Strait, and rhe Hind rn 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 ifit had been a scroll of parchment .. . and being aloft were carried in a most strange manner and abundance, as feathers or drifts of snow, by the violence of the winds, rn water the rnps 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 rn England, which she reached in June the next year. Her captain, John Wimer, 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 rn abandon Drake halfway through the voyage. Available evidence suggests strongly that Wimer 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 rhe coast of Brazil, where he was eventually recovered. (Winter is recorded as losing a boat there.) All other experience of Drake show 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 sea-worn vessel came rn anchor in the lee of a mountainous island at the southernmost tip of the archipelago that ends the continent-the island of Cape Horn. Her ship's company gave thanks rn God for their deliverance, and the record tells us that Drake immediately set about gathering herbs ashore rn cure the incipient scurvy, which had begun rn break out among rhe ship's crew, sta rved for fresh fruits and vegetables. Water casks were filled at the isla nd springs and rowed out rn the ship, firewood was gathered for the ship's srnve, and we may be sure clothes and bedding were hung out everywhere in the welcome rays of the sun. Francis Drake went ashore rn take careful observations with his as trolabe, an instrument practically useless ar sea, but very accurate for sighting the sun or stars from a platform that did not weave and stagger through shouldering seas. In a rwo-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 rn the southernmost land and found open sea rn the southward beyond ir. Fletcher, writing the official hisrory, notes that "being chased alo ng rhe by the winds" was interpreted by Drake "as though God had sent them of purpose rn 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 rn be seen rn the southwards: but that the Atlanric Ocean and the South Sea, meet in a most large and free scope.
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Up rn this time the Strait of Magellan had been thought rn be a passage through the solid landmass of a great southern continent, Terra Australis. If ir were blocked by the Spanish, entry rn the Pacific would be blocked. But this was not the case. Drake carried this great news home with him rn England. He romped up the Pacific coast of South America, srnpping rn 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 become drovers," ca rrying the silver down rn 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 rn ass ure England's direct role in rhe 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 fo llowing year Drake was knighted on the decks of the Golden H ind. Elizabeth had great fun, as the sword was handed rn her, inciting Philip's demand that she chop off Drake's head. The ship was then in a drydock built for her on the south banks of the Thames below London. She was rn be preserved as a monument, but rotted away before a hundred years had passed. Her fame, however, and the lessons rn be learned from her sailing live on rnday.
The idea of world's oceans as a commons, like the vi llage green that is used by all, is so well established rnday that it comes as a shock rn realize that it is only in the last 500 years of the 5,000-year srnry of civilization that people began rn think of the sea as free and open rn all. Ancient navigarnrs in the Mediterranean divided their sea inrn separate basins of commerce and transshipped their goods on reaching the limits of thei r trading areas-and this pattern persisted. The idea of the free scope of the seas was rhe predecessor for the concept of freedom of the seas, that is, freedom for all comers . This condition became a reality throughout the world-wherever there was water enough rn 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, rn Bohemia far inland. For by his sailing Drake had defied Earth 's dominant tyranny-and survived! And rhe message of that voyage has echoed down the hallways of time. People took heart in Drake's srory in 1940, when the British air/sea power srood 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 wrongheaded rn call on Drake's message then? I don't think so, not for one minute.
SEA HISTORY 143, SUMMER 2013