DRAKE, SIR FRANCIS (c. 1545-1596), English admiral, was born near Tavistock, Devonshire, about 1545 according to most early authorities, but possibly as early as 1539 (see Corbett, vol. i., Appendix A) . His father, a yeoman and a zealous Protes tant, took refuge in Kent during the reign of Queen Mary. Young Drake was educated at the expense and under the care of Sir John Hawkins, who was his kinsman; he was apprenticed on a coasting vessel, and at 18 was purser of a ship trading to Biscay. At twenty he made a voyage to Guinea; and at twenty-two he was made captain of the "Judith." He fought his ship gallantly in the Gulf of Mexico under Sir John Hawkins, and returned with him to England, having acquired great reputation, though with the loss of all the money which he had embarked in the expedition. In 157o he obtained a regular privateering commission from Queen Elizabeth, and embarked on a cruise in the Spanish Main. He planned an attack against the Spaniards in the West Indies to indemnify himself for his former losses, and set sail in 1572, with two small ships named the "Pasha" and the "Swan." He was afterwards joined by another vessel ; and with this small squadron he took and plundered the Spanish town of Nombre de Dios. He penetrated across the isthmus of Panama, and committed great havoc among the Spanish shipping. From the top of a tree on the isthmus he obtained his first view of the Pacific, and resolved "to sail an English ship in these seas." In these expeditions he was assisted by the Maroons, descendants of escaped negro slaves. Having filled his ships with plunder, he bore away for England, and arrived at Plymouth on Aug. 9, Having fitted out three frigates at his own expense, he sailed to Ireland, and served as a volunteer, under Walter, earl of Essex. After his patron's death he returned to England, where he was well received by Queen Elizabeth. The first proposal he made to her was a voyage into the South Seas through the straits of Magellan, which no Englishman had hitherto ever attempted. The queen furnished him with means ; and his own fame quickly attracted the men. The fleet with which he sailed consisted of only five small vessels, manned in all by 166 men. Starting on Dec. 13, 1577, he laid his course by the west coast of Morocco and the Cape Verde Islands. He reached the coast of Brazil on April 6, and entered the Rio de la Plata, where he parted com pany with two of his ships ; but having met them again, and taken out their provisions, he turned them adrift. On June 19 he entered the port of St. Julian's, where he remained two months, partly to lay in provisions, and partly delayed by the trial and exe cution of Thomas Doughty, who had plotted against him. On Aug. 21 he entered the Straits of Magellan. The passage of the straits took sixteen days, but then a storm carried the ships to the west; on Oct. 7, having made back for the mouth of the strait, Drake's ship and the two vessels under his vice-admiral Captain Wynter were separated, and the latter, missing the rendezvous, returned to England. Drake went on, and came to Mocha Island, off the coast of Chile, on Nov. 25. He thence continued his voy age along the coast of Chile and Peru, taking all opportunities of seizing Spanish ships, and attacking them on shore, till his men were satiated with plunder; and then coasted along the shores of America, as far as 48° N. lat., in an unsuccessful endeavour to discover a passage into the Atlantic. He named the country New Albion, and took possession of it in the name of Queen Eliza beth. He sailed on July 26, 1579, for the Moluccas. On Nov. 4 he got sight of those islands, and, arriving at Ternate, was ex tremely well received by the sultan. On Dec. Io he made the Celebes, where his ship unfortunately struck upon a rock, but was taken off without much damage. On March 11 he arrived at Java, whence he intended to have directed his course to Malacca; but he found himself obliged to alter his purpose, and to think of returning home. On March 26, 258o, he again set sail; and on June 15 doubled the Cape of Good Hope, having then on board only S7 men and three casks of water. He passed the line on July 12 and on the 16th reached the coast of Guinea, where he watered. On Sept. 11 he made the Island of Terceira, and on Sept. 26 (? ) he entered Plymouth harbour. This voyage round the world, the first accomplished by an Englishman, was thus performed in two years and about ten months.
The queen hesitated for some time whether to recognize his achievements or not, on the ground that such recognition might lead to complications with Spain, but she finally decided in his favour. She went on board his ship at Deptford and there con ferred upon him the honour of knighthood. She likewise gave directions for the preservation of his ship, the "Golden Hind," that it might remain a monument of his own and his country's glory. After the lapse of a century it decayed and had to be broken up. Of the sound timber a chair was made, which was presented by Charles II. to the university of Oxford.
In I 581 Drake became mayor of Plymouth ; and in 1585 he married a second time, his first wife having died in 1583. In 1585 hostilities having commenced with Spain, he again went to sea, sailing with a fleet to the West Indies, and taking the cities of Santiago (in the Cape Verde Islands), San Domingo, Cartagena and St. Augustine. In 1587 he went to Lisbon with a fleet of thirty sail ; and having received intelligence of a great fleet being assem bled in the bay of Cadiz, and destined to form part of the Armada, he entered the port on April 19, and there burnt upwards of tons of shipping--a feat which he afterwards called "singe ing the king of Spain's beard." In 1588, when the Spanish Ar mada was approaching England, Sir Francis Drake was appointed vice-admiral under Lord Howard, and made prize of a very large galleon, commanded by Don Pedro de Valdez, who struck at once on learning his adversary's name.
In 1589 Drake commanded the fleet sent to restore Dom An tonio, king of Portugal, the land forces being under the orders of Sir John Norreys; but they had hardly put to sea when the com manders differed, and thus the attempt proved abortive. But as the war with Spain continued, an expedition was fitted out, under Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake, against their settlements in the West Indies. Here, however, the commanders again disa greed about the plan; and the result disappointed public expecta tion. These disasters were the principal cause of his death, which took place on board his own ship, near the town of Nombre de Dios, in the West Indies, on Jan. 28, 1596.
The older Lives by Samuel Clarke (1671) and John Barrow, junr. (1843), have been superseded by Julian Corbett's two admirable volumes on Drake and the Tudor Navy (1898), the best source of information on the subject, which were preceded by the same author's Sir Francis Drake in the "English Men of Action" series (189o). See also E. J. Payne's edition of Voyages of the Elizabethan Seamen to America: Thirteen original narratives from the collection of Hakluyt (new ed., 1893) ; A. Brereton, Sir Francis Drake 0917); Sir Walter Runciman, Drake, Nelson and Napoleon, etc. (1919) ; E. F. Benson, Sir Francis Drake (1927) ; and Sir Francis Drake's Voyage round the World, 1577-158o: Two contemporary maps (Brit. Mus. printed books, 1927).