Drake, SIR FRANCIS, the greatest of the Elizabethan seamen, was born near Tavistock, most likely in 1540. His father was apparently in humble life, is said to have had twelve sons, and to have been obliged for conscience' sake to take shelter in Kent. The boy was apprenticed at an early age to the master of a small vessel, who bequeathed it to him, after which he followed the coasting trade some years. 'But the narrow seas were a prison for so large a spirit, born for greater undertakings,' and by 1565 he was voyaging to Guinea and the Spanish Main. In 1567 he commanded the Judith of 50 tons in his kinsman John Hawkins's ill-fated expedition; next made in 1570 and in 1571 voyages to the West Indies with a view to find intelligence how to make good the losses he had suffered from the Spaniards at that time. Next in May 1572 he equipped two small ships, the Pasha and Swan, with but seventy-three men, landed at Nombre de Dios, 29th July, and beat off the Spaniards after a short struggle, in which he was severely wounded. His own fainting from loss of blood alone prevented the 'Treasure of the World' from being carried off. In this audacious expedition Drake further burned Porto Bello, captured and destroyed many Spanish ships, crossed the isthmus to the highest point of the dividing ridge, where, climbing a tree from whose tops the guides told him both seas could be seen, he gazed upon the vast waters of the South Seas, and with that touch of romantic enthusiasm that redeemed all his piracies, 'besought Almighty God of His goodness to give him life and leave to sail once in an English ship in that sea.' Drake arrived in Plymouth on Sunday, 9th August 1573, during sermon-time, when the news of his return 'did so speedily pass over all the church, and surpass their minds with desire and delight to see him, that very few or none remained with the preacher, all hastening to see the evidence of God's love and blessing towards our gracious queen and country.'
In 1577 he fitted out another small squadron of five vessels, the destination of which was kept secret, consisting of his own ship the Pelican of 100 tons, the Elizabeth of 80 tons, and three smaller vessels, and with these sailed from Plymouth on the 13th December. One Thomas Doughty was tried and executed at Port St Julian for an attempt to stir up a mutiny, and on the 20th August, the squadron, now reduced to three ships by the burning of two, entered the Strait of Magellan, and here Drake changed his own ship's name from the Pelican to the Golden Hind. In sixteen days they made the passage, then followed violent tempests for fifty-two days, during which the Marigold foundered with all hands and the Elizabeth parted with the admiral and resolved to return home. She reached England, 2d June 1579. Drake was driven far to the southward, but at length was able to alter his course and steer northwards again. At Valparaiso he provisioned his ship from the Spanish storehouses, reached Callao on 15th February 1579, found a rich prize off Cape Francisco (March 1) and another on 4th April. Drake now determined to return home by crossing the Pacific. He touched land at a creek on the northern side of the Golden Gate, then for sixty-eight days together had no sight of land until he made the Pelew Islands. After refreshing three weeks at Ternate, and a thorough refit on the south-west coast of Java, he held for the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived in England, 26th September 1580. The queen, in the face of Spanish protests, was at first uncertain how to receive Drake, but at length (April 4, 1581) paid a visit to his ship at Deptford, and knighted him on its deck.
In the autumn of 1585 Drake sailed with a fleet of twenty-five ships against the Spanish Indies, harrying Hispaniola, Cartagena, and the coast of Florida, and after great sufferings from sickness, brought home the 190 dispirited Virginian colonists, with tobacco and potatoes (28th July 1586). Early in 1587 he set sail with a strong squadron to cripple the king of Spain in his own seas, and retard his preparations for invasion—a sport which he called 'singeing the king of Spain's beard.' Sailing right into the harbour of Cadiz, he sank or burned as many as thirty-three ships, and made his way out unscathed. The seeming recklessness of his tactics was no devil-may-care bravado, but due to consummate seamanship no less than promptitude and courage. Drake next sailed to the Azores, capturing a rich homeward-bound Portuguese carack worth £100,000. In the face of the impending struggle for which Philip II. had long been preparing, his persistent plan was to follow up the policy of harassing the enemy on his own coasts—'to seek God's enemies and her majesty's where they may be found.' In a letter to the reluctant and parsimonious queen not three months before the actual sailing of the Armada, he reiterates his advice 'to encounter them somewhat far off, and more near their own coast, which will be the better cheap for your majesty and people, and much the dearer for the enemy.' There is no doubt that Drake's plan was the best, and had not the elements themselves fought for England, the issue might have been vastly different.
Drake's division in the three-fold arrangement of the English fleet was at first stationed off Ushant, until all the ships were blown together to Plymouth by the same storm that carried the Spaniards across the Bay of Biscay. Here, on the Hoe, the admirals and captains were playing the famous game of bowls, when the news was brought that the enemy was off the Lizard. Howard was eager to put to sea at once, but Drake would first finish the game, saying 'there's plenty of time to win this game, and to thrash the Spaniards too.' The story, whether true or no, is in perfect keeping with the character of the man. Early next morning the battle began, and raged along the Channel throughout the week. Drake's consummate seamanship and audacious courage covered him with fresh glory, and inspired new terror in the Spaniards. He captured the Rosario off Portland, whose captain, Don Pedro de Valdes, ransomed himself with £3000 three years later. On the 29th July occurred the final action so disastrous to the Spaniards, after which they came to their fatal determination to return to Spain round the Orkneys. Two days later Drake wrote to Walsingham: 'There was never anything pleased me better than the seeing the enemy flying with a southerly wind to the northward. God grant you have a good eye to the Duke of Parma, for with the grace of God, if we live, I doubt it not, but ere it be long so to handle the matter with the Duke of Sidonia, as he shall wish himself at Saint Mary Port among his orange trees.' It was not long before want of ammunition compelled Drake and Howard to fall back from the chase, but the storms of the northern seas took up their work and swept the Spaniards to destruction. Drake's fears that the Armada might refit in Denmark were happily frustrated, and the liberties of England were saved. Next spring a great expedition under him and Sir John Norreys sailed for the coasts of Spain and Portugal, but had little success beyond the damage inflicted upon the Spanish shipping, while sickness and actual hunger carried off thousands on board the crowded and ill-victualled ships. Drake spent his next few years in peaceful labours on shore, bringing a new water-supply to Plymouth, and representing the town in parliament. In August 1595 he sailed from Plymouth on his last expedition to the West Indies. Ill-fortune followed the fleet from the beginning; Hawkins, the second in command, died off Porto Rico in November, and Drake himself fell ill from dysentery and died off Porto Bello, 28th January 1596. His body was put into a leaden coffin and next day committed to the deep; as an anonymous poet quoted in Prince's Worthies of Devon said:
The waves became his winding-sheet; the waters were his tomb;
But for his fame, the ocean sea was not sufficient room.
See the Life by Barrow (1843); Froude's English Seamen of the 16th Century (1895); Julian Corbett's short Life (1890) and his elaborate Drake and the Rise of the Tudor Navy (2 vols. 1898).