The Worlds Greatest Naval Explorers Named Sir Francis Drake - Essay Example

In the sixteenth century, the English nation had borne out one of the world’s greatest naval explorers d Sir Francis Drake born in Devonshire in the year 1540. Drake began his perilous explorations at a very young age. In 1565, Drake sailed into the Spanish Main with his finest colleague John Hawkins; this first mission of Drake was an utter failure since the Spaniards defeated them in a decisive naval battle. To redeem himself, he embarked on another expedition carrying a revengeful objective against the treasure house of Spain at Nombre de Dios. In this voyage, Drake was guided by the natives to the isthmus of Darien which had an overview of the panorama of the Pacific. The Englishman was enormously inspired by the sight of the majestic Pacific and swore allegiance to the Almighty for the fruition of his exceptional dream which was to sail out in the Pacific waters with the good graces of the English monarchy. Sir Francis Drake was known in the history of explorations as the first Englishman who successfully circumnavigated the globe and defeated the legendary Spanish fleet, the Armada. This paper will argue that the voyages of Sir Francis Drake were notable in its contribution in alleviating the ignorance of our predecessors of the geographic makeup of the world. Primary sources particularly letters from the contemporaries of Drake and correspondences of the renowned Englishman himself about the amazing occurrences of their expeditions will be carefully analyzed in this essay. These primary sources will be chiefly used to exemplify the efforts of the English explorers to lighten the necessities of the rising demands of the English nation and the exigencies of war against the mortal rival of England, Spain. Nonetheless, the original references of Drake’s perilous journey in the Pacific will be analyzed in light of its consistency and credibility dependent upon the interpretation and the circumstances surrounding the chroniclers and the subsequent bibliophiles who worked for the preservation of these important antiquated sources of history. Few are aware of the crowning achievements of Sir Francis Drake in the Caribbean and the Pacific wherein he successfully seized a fraction of California for her eminence Queen Elizabeth and encountered death-defying battles against the Spanish fleets. The expeditions of Drake became a grand source of knowledge about the geographical details of the New World and deposited large amounts of riches to the treasury of Queen Elizabeth. A passionate collector and bibliophile Hans Peter Kraus was one of the most central figures in the field of antiquarian book dealing in the twentieth century. Kraus’ collections involve a massive rectification of the Drake anthologies which comprehensively recounted the Spanish colonial history in the Americas. The unique collection also enlightens the readers on the details of the consequences Drake confronted due to his unrelenting attacks on Spanish trade ships and on habitations in the Caribbean and the Pacific (The Library of Congress, 2005). The initial move of Drake to emboss his name of immortality was his voyage to America with his finest colleague John Hawkins. The venture commenced on October 12, 1567 as soon as a flotilla of six ships departed from Plymouth. Unfortunately, the voyage was not a success since only two ships were able to return to England in which one was manned by Drake himself in January 1569; the second ship followed right after one month which was led by John Hawkins. The stupendous failure of this voyage was due to the intrepid intrusion of the English squadron into the ports of San Juan de Ulúa, Mexico to get hold of supplies and to revamp their ships. Unluckily, the Spanish flotilla of thirteen vast ships which rounded the strategic harbor yearly docked on the port with the newly appointed Viceroy of Mexico Don Martin Enriquez. Since there was little possibility of an escape for the English fleet, they pleaded for a treaty with Don Enriquez to allow them to stay for a while, purchase their needed supplies, and repair their ships. Don Enriquez ostensibly bowed down to the laid requests but after a while he broke the agreement and ordered his men to murder all the Englishmen. The battle was devastation for the English fleet since four of their original ships were destroyed and many of their men were wiped out. John Hawkins, one of the lucky survivors of the manslaughter, narrated the disastrous ending of the expedition which became one of the most essential English sources for the event (Hakluyts, 1589). Luis Cabrera de Cordova wrote a Spanish version of the incident in which the names of Drake and Hawkins were mentioned. A translation of the text from Cordova’s narrative was as follows: “Don Francisco de Luján, the Captain-General, did not feel obliged to adhere to an agreement made with raiders, and took the opportunity to break with them over the question of mooring places in the harbor. He decided to fight them, and ordered a considerable number of soldiers, armed only with daggers, to go aboard to call upon the English and to invite them over: during the banquet they were to be killed. This was done, and the guns of the fleet bombarded the English ships. A force of soldiers also captured the guns that John Hawkins had placed on a platform commanding the harbor to protect his flagship while he was careening her. Hawkins, meanwhile, ordered Francis Drake to load the gold he had acquired at Elmina into one of his ships, and to wait for him with it outside the harbor. He set fire to his flagship and directed the fight from the second largest ship: as things were going badly, he got away from the harbor in company with one other ship, leaving the remainder, with quantities of clothes, silver, slaves, rich stuffs, and many of his English crews dead, and he made sail (Cordova, 1619, p. 513)” Albeit the demoralizing defeat of Sir Francis Drake against the treacherous naval power of Don Enriquez, English expeditions led by the great explorer did not cease to satisfy his ferocious nature. The greatest voyage of Drake as well as of the world that was pompously registered in the historical archives of England was the remarkable circumnavigation of the earth after Ferdinand Magellan’s; yet, the latter Spanish explorer was not able to witness the very first expedition that triumphantly circled the globe since Magellan was killed by the natives in the Philippines in the Battle of Mactan. The flotilla of Drake composed of five vessels in which the massive ship named Golden Hind included led by Drake himself set sail from Plymouth on December 13, 1577. The Golden Hind was the singular ship that was able to complete the passage around the world which returned to England on September 26, 1580 carrying cargoes of precious stones such as gold, silver, and pearls. Yet, the entire journey was fraught with controversies and mysteries which are now studied and researched by historians. One of the hullabaloos that densely stained the reputation of Drake was the Doughty affair. Thomas Doughty was mutually an affiliate of Drake and a ranking office on the circumnavigation expedition. Startlingly, Drake indicted him of treason and provocation of sedition. Drake’s accusations were put on trial at Port St. Julian and Doughty was discovered guilty and was offered the options for his punishment which was whether to be casted away on a wild coast or death. Doughty courageously chose the last option which proved his chivalrous standing. The puzzling truth behind the presence of Doughty on Drake’s circumnavigation voyage baffled historians and generated even more questions on the role of Doughty on the voyage. Some scholars inferred that Doughty was sent by Lord Burghley to thwart Drake from pillaging the Spanish ships and harbors in America so as to prevent another war with Spain. After a month of the staggering execution of Doughty, Drake’s voyage was pestered by another predicament and this time not only one individual was involved but a number of gentlemen and mariners who frequently quarreled. Drake immediately attended to the worsening situation to halt an imminent mutiny. Drake delivered his sermons at a religious service headed by Chaplain Fletcher and laid down the new rules of conduct which purported that individuals manning the ships should cooperate mutually and treat each other as equals. In his attempt to resolve the crisis stalking his voyage, Drake inadvertently shaped a new institution of English leadership (Williamson, 1938). The Golden Hind, which was the only surviving ship from the voyage, traversed the Pacific on July 23, 1579. The ship rounded up the Pacific hence sighting the land of the Philippines, Ternate in the East Indies, Java, and then athwart the Indian Ocean, circling the Cape of Good Hope, and finally back to Plymouth. Drake brought home tons of wealth from the sighted lands and informed discreetly the Queen of his exultant return; Queen Elizabeth then dutifully awarded the deserved honor to Sir Francis Drake. Drake’s legendary voyage was painfully kept as a secret which was confirmed by the letters of the exceptional map-maker Gerard Mercator to the similarly brilliant cartographer Abraham Ortelius. The latter gentleman was also an ingenious architect of maps which were perhaps used by Drake during his voyage. Drake was commanded to diffidently complete the voyage because of the ensuing diplomatic jeopardy if his fortified invasions into King Philip’s territories were revealed. Drake compelled his men to confidentiality and threatened them of losing their chances for loots if they will do otherwise. The translation of the vital fractions of Mercator’s letter to Ortelius fittingly gave evidence to the sworn secrecy of Drake’s voyage: “So it does not seem likely that Drake would have tried it, especially if he came back from Asia so loaded down with treasure. For his return westwards would be much shorter--indeed, [the route] has for some time since been known to be [only] about half [the distance]--if he were in fact to come back by the island of Vaigatz and Nova Zemlya, and thence reach England. This voyage by Arthur [Pett] was reported to me in confidence, so keep secret the fact that you know anything about it. However, in the meantime, you might well fish for the truth of the matter among all your friends; for if one meets with many and inquires of them, they cannot all lie so splendidly that the truth will not out..(Mercator, 1580)” The secrecy of Drake’s circumnavigation voyage was ordered by the Queen to preserve her nation’s diplomatic ties with Spain and to prevent further destructions of the two camps from incessant fighting. Nonetheless, Spain still clamored for the invasion of England and accordingly improved its military power particularly its naval might as it will be deemed valuable to the defeat of England’s invasion army. The Spanish Armada which was mockingly dubbed by non-Spaniards as the “Invincible Armada” departed from the capital city of Portugal, Lisbon. The Spaniards designed a preparation that will deploy troops to England and overwhelm the English so as to recommence the sovereignty of Philip as King of England which he rightfully gained by his marriage to Mary Tudor. However, this Spanish dream of domination did not come into realization because of Drake’s nifty combat techniques and leadership. The final ruin of the Spanish Armada which was the grandiose fleet of Spain signaled the downfall of the Catholic country as a leading nation in Europe and the advent of the English supremacy. Conversely, Spain did every possible preparation for the defeat of England and these efforts were illustrated in the Armada officer’s commission issued by Philip II of Spain to Pedro de Sotomayor in 1587. The commission read as follows: “Inasmuch as I have ordered that a large Armada be assembled in the port and river of Lisbon, in order to go and seek out the one that has sailed from England and cruises through the seas of these my kingdoms...Don Pedro de Sotomayor, I have decided to assign you in the said Armada ten escudos of ten Castilian reales each as remuneration to serve under the Marquess of Santa Cruz, my Captain-General of the Ocean and of the troops of my Kingdom of Portugal...(King Philip II, 1587)” Pedro de Sotomayor was suitably enlisted to serve in opposition to Drake after the notorious Englishman’s attack on Cadiz. Drake’s final voyage set sailed from Plymouth on August 28, 1595 which had the goal of securing the treasure ship that was destroyed at sea and which was swept to the harbor of San Juan, Puerto Rico was dejected as San Juan was a well-built buttress of defense. On January 28, 1596, Drake met his demise at sea off Porto Bello. His remains were thrown into the waters of the Caribbean wherein he staged several of his most audacious expeditions. Drake’s last voyage was again a joint enterprise and to augment to the wherewithal for his investment Drake vended his 71-year lease of a home named “The Herbar” in London. The deed of sale was preserved in the Kraus collection which bears the signature of the procurer Alderman Paul Banninge. Ironically, for all the prominence that Drake earned in his lifetime diminutive is known about this colossal English explorer. His exact birth date is unknown but historians speculate that it is around the year 1540. Dearth of primary sources on the life and voyages of Drake was the principal reason why historians cannot ascertain to a high-degree the personal background of Drake. However, his bold expeditions were amply chronicled by the important actors who played a crucial role in the success and failures of his voyages. The correspondences about Drake’s perilous journeys were genuine in its rightful term since narrating the thrilling events of the passages were merely descriptive and somehow free from construal that is intrinsic to the drafting of secondary sources. However, the depiction of the first-hand narrators of Drake’s adventures in the Pacific can be bias-laden if there were some emotional and psychological constraints locking up the minds of these writers toward a truthful accounting of details. One of the possible motives in slanting the truth was the common hatred harbored by some of the individuals involved in the expeditions against Drake because of the latter’s fierceness and cold-heartedness as manifested in the Doughty affair. Another apparent basis for the negative credibility of the primary sources on Drake’s voyages is the ordered confidentiality of the sea missions. It is logically possible that the documents that were discovered may had been consciously modified by the chroniclers to ward-off suspicion from Drake’s activities and that the genuinely crafted manuscripts are still in the hiding. Moreover, the Hans P. Kraus collections of accounts on Sir Francis Drake’s voyages may have been inadvertently altered due to its translations to the English language; the factual meanings may have been lost while in the process of renditions. References Primary Sources De Cordova, Luis Cabrera. “Filipe Segundo Rey de Espana” Madrid, 1619. http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/catalog/drake/drake-2-unfortunatevoy.html Hakluyt. “Principal Navigation” 1589 http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/catalog/drake/drake-2-unfortunatevoy.html Kraus, Hans P. “The Last Voyage 1595-1596” Sir Francis Drake: A Pictorial Biography 2005. http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/catalog/drake/drake-10-lastvoy.html “An Armada officer’s commission issued by Philip II of Spain” 1587. http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/catalog/drake/drake-8-invincible.html “Document recording Drake’s Sale of the Lease of his House ‘The Herbar’ in London” 1593 http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/catalog/drake/drake-10-lastvoy.html “Gerald Mercantor’s Autograph Letter to Abraham Ortelius” 1580. http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/catalog/drake/drake-4-famousvoy.html “Rare Book and Special Collections Divisions” Library of Congress, 10 Jan. 2005. http://international.loc.gov/intldl/drakehtml/ http://www.intute.ac.uk/artsandhumanities/cgi-bin/search.pl?term1=Francis%20Drake Secondary Sources Williamson, J.A. The Age of Drake. London, 1938. Taylor, E.G.R. "Early Empire-- Building Projects in the Pacific Ocean." Hispanic American Historical Review (1934). Read More