The English
galleon Golden Hinde circumnavigated the globe
between 1577 and 1580.
In 1577 Elizabeth I of England chose Sir Francis
Drake as the leader of an expedition intended to
pass around South America through the Strait of
Magellan and to explore the coast that lay beyond.
Before setting sail, Drake met the queen
face-to-face for the first time and she told him,
"We would gladly be revenged on the King of Spain
for divers injuries that we have received."
The explicit object was to "find out places meet to
have traffic."
Drake, however, acted as a
privateer. He set sail in December with
five small ships, manned by 164 men, and reached the
Brazilian coast in the spring of 1578. His flagship,
the Pelican, which Drake renamed the Golden Hinde,
displaced about 100 tons.
On March 1st, 1579, the Golden Hind captured the
Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción,
which had the largest treasure captured to that
date: over 360,000 Pesos.
Subsequently Drake sailed North
to around San Francisco Bay, claiming this land as
'Nova Albion' in July. He then
came back across the Pacific, reaching the Cape of
Good Hope on June 18th, 1580 and Sierra Leone on
July 22nd. On 26 September 1580, he
took his ship into Plymouth Harbor with only 56 of
the original crew of 100 left aboard.
Despite Francis Drake's
piratical conduct on his voyages, Queen Elizabeth
herself went aboard the Golden Hinde and personally
bestowed a knighthood on him.
After Drake's
circumnavigation the Golden Hind was maintained for
public exhibition in Deptford. This is the
earliest known example of a ship being maintained
for public display because of its historic
significance. Golden Hind remained there for nearly
100 years before she eventually rotted away and was
finally broken up.
The table in the Middle Temple Hall (in the City of
London) is made from the wood of the Golden
Hinde, as is a chair in the Great Hall, Buckland
Abbey, Devon.
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