Though Blackbeard was more well-known for his fearsome behavior than his navigational triumphs, there are, in fact, pirates who were noted for their historical sea voyages.  Sir Francis Drake was one of them, being the first English sea captain to circumnavigate the globe and claim a portion of California for Queen Elizabeth I. Like Hernan Cortes, Drake may not be considered by all to be an historically great, fearsome pirate.  I am here to tell you, however, that Drake epitomized the self-made Elizabethan privateer, viscous in the hunt for treasure but daring and visionary in exploration...

Born in 1540 in Devon, England, Francis Drake was destined to become an adventurer, pirate, and expert seaman.  During the time of his youth, England was experiencing an increase in population, power and wealth largely due to the historic reign of Elizabeth I, who ruled England during most of Drake's life.  This increase in power led to conflicts surrounding important issues such as religion and trade.  Thus, England was at war with Spain, a country amassing a vast empire to the west, for much of Drake's life.  Drake's father, a Protestant preacher, introduced a religion to his son that would have a profound effect on him throughout his life.  On his voyage around the world, he led religious services on board ship twice a day.


Drake began his voyaging career in the 1560s with a renowned English seaman by the name of John Hawkins, who was also Drake's cousin.  These voyages, though not strictly of the pirate nature, produced attempts to turn a profit by selling smuggled goods to Spanish colonies.  The risks involved in this behavior were immense.  Because of the Spanish king's loss of sales tax revenues, he ordered an attack on all English vessels in the Caribbean.   The attack was brutal, destroying all English ships but two, the ones commanded by Drake and Hawkins.  They just barely made it back to England.




Drake's obsession with Spanish treasure proved certain in his attack on Nombre de Dios, the first permanent Spanish settlement in Tierra Firme located near Panama, in 1572.  He gathered a crew of 73 men and set sail for the city which was a port of call for the Tierra Firme treasure fleet which came every year to pick up gold and silver mined in the south American mountains.  Drake was enchanted with the vast amounts of treasure he knew he would find there.  In fact, he was so enchanted that on the night of the attack, he fainted outside the king's storehouse (probably from loss of blood due to a gunshot wound to the leg he had suffered the day before).  His men, fearing a counterattack, panicked and grabbed their leader and fled with virtually none of the loot.



By this point, most people had already received word of Drake's presence in the city and, thus, his plans for a surprise attack were destroyed.  He and his crew retreated to the San Bernardo islands where they began plotting once more.  Drake came up with a plan to target a "silver train," which is a train of mules that crossed the isthmus of Panama each year carrying silver from the mines in Peru.  During the attack on the northbound mule train, Drake and his men killed a number of Spaniards and sent the rest fleeing into the jungle.    Unfortunately for Drake, he quickly realized that the treasure he sought actually turned out to be food and trading goods, not silver and gold as he had hoped.  Inevitably, the morale of the Englishmen reached a desperate low.

During a month long retreat, Drake began a plot to ambush a series of mule trains closer to Nombre de Dios, his original source of attack.  Fortune favored Drake this time.  He and his men attacked three mule trains carrying bars of gold and silver.  The only problem Drake ran into was figuring out a way to haul away all of the loot.  Of course, he managed and on August 9, 1573, over a year after he set out to attack Nombre de Dios, Drake and thirty English survivors returned to England as very wealthy men.






Bibliography

1.   "Sir Francis Drake", published under the Global Travel Club Central American Travel Specialties website.  Created by Global Creations © 1998-2002.  All Rights Reserved. (I used this site as my primary source in re-telling, in my own words, what I learned here)
websource:
http://www.global-travel.co.uk/drake.htm

2.       "Sir Francis Drake," published by the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London
© NMM London  (This site was very helpful in providing the details surrounding the history of Francis Drake's country during the time of his life) 
websource:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/site/request/setTemplate:singlecontent/contentTypeA/conWebDoc/contentId/140/navId/00500300f005



Images:

1.      "Map of Drake's Voyages" - Virtual Maritime Museum in British Columbia
Websource:
http://legends.dm.net/pirates/drake.html

2.      "Sir Francis Drake" (1546-1596),   Engraving, 18th Century, Museum Collection
Websource:
http://www.mariner.org/age/drake.html

3.  "How Francis Drake Captured the Town of Santo Domingo Located on the Island of Hispaniola," Engraving from Collections of Voyages to the East and West Indies, 1599 by Theodore de Bry, Museum Library Collection
Websource:
http://www.mariner.org/age/drake.html

4.      "The Golden Hind" - Virtual Maritime Museum in British Columbia
Websource:
http://legends.dm.net/pirates/drake.html