Robert Wylkinson ¹

  Noted events in his life were:

• Historic Figure: Sir Francis Drake, 1540-1596. ⁴⁸ The first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe was also a pirate. It's easy to forget that these explorers of great achievement also often had a seamier side. Drake was born in Devonshire and went off to sea at an early age, travelling to Guinea and the West Indies. In 1567, he commanded a slave ship for his kinsman, John Hawkins. The expedition was attacked by Spaniards and only three ships survived.

Keen to make up for the goods stolen , Drake set sail in 1572 with his privateer's license courtesy of Queen Elizabeth. He had his first successful expedition as a marauder on the Isthmus of Panama. It was there that he became the first Englishman to see the Pacific Ocean. He returned to England a wealthy and famous man.

In 1577 he headed to the Spanish-owned Pacific coast of the New World, where he became the first Englishman to navigate the Straits of Magellan. It was around this time that he changed the name of his ship to The Golden Hind. In the Pacific, his fleet met with dangerous storms which destroyed one ship, and sent another home, leaving Drake to continue north alone.

He travelled up to present day Washington state, but finding no route across the Atlantic, he turned Pacific-ward. His travels took him to the Moluccas, Celebes, Java and the Cape of Good Hope. He arrived back in England with very valuable treasure and the distinction of being the first man to circumnavigate the globe.

Elizabeth was reluctant to acknowledge Drake's achievements, for fear of further alienating the Spanish, but realising that they would never be placated, she visited him aboard the Golden Hind and knighted him.

In 1585 he travelled to the West Indies and the coast of Florida where he sacked and plundered Spanish cities. On his return voyage, he picked up unhappy colonists on Roanoke Island off the coast of the Carolinas, along with potatoes and tobacco.

In 1587, Drake entered the port of Cadiz and destroyed 30 of the ships the Spanish were assembling against the British. In 1588, he became vice admiral in the fleet that defeated the Armada.

His last expedition, with Hawkins, was to the West Indies. The Spanish were prepared for him this time, and the venture was a disaster. Drake died soon thereafter, of dysentery off Portobelo.

Robert married Helen Ironshaw on 26 Nov 1569 in Calverton, Nottingham, England.¹ (Helen Ironshaw was born about 1545 in ?? Calverton, Nottingham, England.)