All the Queen's Men (16 page)

Life was extremely cheap in the sixteenth century; it came and went with little cause for comment. No one embarked on an ocean voyage for the good of their health and death was an occupational hazard that was accepted as a routine event: ‘William Pickman, a souldier was shot in the thigh, who plucked the arrowe out, broke it and left the head behinde. Whereupon the poison wrought so that night, that hee was marvellously swollen, and all his belly and privey parts were as blacke as ynke, and the next morning he died.'
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Drake was struck by an Indian arrow just below his eye on his epic three-year voyage around the world and was fortunate to escape with his life. Lesser mortals who were wounded far away from home were often regarded as an unwelcome inconvenience who were expendable and certainly not wanted on voyage: ‘And all the sicke men in the Galeon were most uncharitably put ashore, into the woods, in the snows, raine and cold, when men of good health could skarcely endure it, where they ended their lives in the highest degree of misery.'
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There was no room for passengers on the ships of the Elizabethan explorers. Those seamen who were fortunate enough to survive to tell the tale were equally laconic about those of their comrades who had been left behind: ‘In this voyage we lost two men, one in the way by God's visitation, and the other homeward lost overboard with a surge of the sea.'
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There was never any shortage of volunteers to man the ships that were being prepared for long voyages overseas, particularly those belonging to renowned seafarers such as Drake or Hawkins. Enthusiastic jack-the-lads filled the cobbled quays and crowded taverns of Plymouth's Barbican area, eager for a chance to get aboard. Drake commanded fanatical loyalty from crews devoted enough to follow him to the ends of the earth. In fact, this was where he often took them, sailing literally off the map into uncharted waters, where a navigator such as Nuno de Silva, who knew the local waters, could be hijacked to take them a stage further until his knowledge ran out and he was replaced. Most seamen were eager to risk all for the chance of adventure and a small share of the rich pickings that might come their way after a successful voyage to the Spanish Main: ‘We found in her great riches, as jewels and precious stones, thirteen chestes full of royals of plate, foure score pound weight of gold, and sixe and twentie tunne of silver.'
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To a simple seaman from the back streets of Plymouth, Bristol or Southampton, there were marvellous sights to be seen along the way in these faraway exotic places: ‘the nineteen day at twelve of the clock we had sight of the Canaries. Teneriffa is a high land, with a great high pike like a sugar loafe, and upon the said pike is snow throughout the whole year.'
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Extraordinary creatures were encountered, the like of which they had never experienced before, wondrous to behold: ‘the elephant . . . is the biggest of all foure footed beasts, his fore legs are longer then his hinder, he hath ankles in the lower part of his hinder legges, and five toes on his feete undivided, his snout or tronke is so long and in such forme that it is to him in the stead of a hand', though not everything was quite so favourably inclined towards this mighty tropical beast – ‘they have continual warre against Dragons which desire their blood because it is very cold.'
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Not surprisingly charts of this period contain fearsome drawings together with a warning ‘here be dragons'.

New species of plants, fruit and vegetables, including the potato and tobacco, were discovered in foreign parts and brought back to England by Drake and Hawkins. Jean Nicot had introduced tobacco to France in 1560 and Catherine de Medici used to take snuff to cure her migraines, an affliction she had shared with Queen Elizabeth.

The legendary Hawkins family from Plymouth had been among the earliest of Tudor explorers to venture offshore:

Old Mr William Hawkins of Plimmouth, a man for his wisdome, valure, experience, and skill in sea caurses much esteemed . . . being one of the principall Sea-captaines in the West parts of England in his time, not contented with the short voyages commonly then made onely to the knowne coasts of Europe, armed out a tall and goodly shippe of his owne of the burthen of 250 tonnes, called the Paule of Plimmouth, where with he made three long and famous voyages unto the coast of Brasil, a thing in those dayes very rare, especially to our nation.
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On one particular occasion Hawkins was to return bringing with him a Brazilian native king whom he presented to the Royal Court at Whitehall Palace and whose exotic appearance caused a mild sensation. William's son, John Hawkins, followed his father to sea, initially trading on the West African coast. It was not long before he became involved in the highly profitable slave trade, financed by two of Elizabeth's Privy Councillors, Lord Robert Dudley and the Earl of Pembroke, using a ship provided by the Queen: ‘they brought with them certaine blacke slaves. . . . The colde and moyst aire doth somewhat offend them. Yet doubtless men that are borne in hot Regions may better abide colde, than men that are born in colde regions may abide heat.'
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Human rights was not an item to be found on the agenda of Tudor England.

Hawkins took his young cousin Francis Drake under his wing and together they started to trade with the Caribbean, challenging the Spanish monopoly in the New World. This led to disaster at San Juan de Ulua, where Spanish treachery cost Hawkins dear in terms of lost treasure and instilled in Drake a relentless hatred of all Spaniards that remained with him for the rest of his life. The Spanish view of this incident was more relaxed, ‘an affair of foxes and not of lions'.
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Then came a seminal event in the unfolding story of Elizabethan exploration, as a small, storm-battered ship dropped anchor in Plymouth Sound, behind a little rocky outcrop, close to the shore, now known as Drake's Island:

At Mighelmasse this yeare came Mr Fraunces Drake home to Plymouthe from the Southe Seay and mollocus and wasse roundabout the world and wasse Lacke towe years and thre quarters and brought home great stoore of golde and sylver in blockes. And was afterward in the same yere for his good seruice in thatt behalf done kneighted.
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This extraordinary feat of seamanship resulted in England becoming a major sea power, introducing a long maritime tradition maintained to the present day. Drake's achievement is recorded in the ‘Black Book', 360 pages of thick paper bound in oaken boards covered in leather. So called on account of its dark colour, it was originally known as ‘the town ligger', a contemporary account of Plymouth in the sixteenth century and kept in the West Devon Records Office in the city.

The momentous voyage of ‘Francis Drake About the Whole Globe', had originated some three years earlier in 1577 with the Queen desiring that an expedition be mounted ‘to the great southe sea',
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the southern ocean where cartographers confidently believed lay a mysterious undiscovered continent. ‘Terra Australis Incognita', hopefully contained treasure beyond their wildest dreams. In reality, this venture was to be a far-flung fund-raising trip to the lightly defended Spanish colonies on the Pacific coast of South America. Naturally, all the best-known sea captains worth their salt were eager to undertake this unique opportunity on behalf of the Queen and she carefully considered their individual merits before passing over the more obvious choices in favour of Francis Drake. Elizabeth felt that John Hawkins was too old for such a long, arduous voyage and could not be spared from the vital task he was about to undertake as her newly appointed Navy Treasurer. Ralegh had been equally keen, but Elizabeth did not consider him to be sufficiently reliable, while at the same time she thought that the fiery Grenville might prove too provocative for the Spanish in whose territory the expedition would be sailing. Likewise Elizabeth sensed that to give command to Frobisher might equally antagonize Spain, thereby jeopardizing the success of a venture for which she had such high hopes of favourable financial returns. She judged Drake to be the most determined of her seafarers, the one most hungry for success while possessing the ability to ensure its fulfilment.

The Queen would deploy the commander of this mission as a long-range political and military weapon, to be launched against Spain with little risk to herself. If all went wrong and Drake was captured by the Spanish, she could easily dissociate herself from the venture, as it seemed unlikely that he would have had any official written authorization. Yet again Elizabeth was manipulating one man's ambition to suit her own aims. Her sentiments were shared by the majority of the key members of the Privy Council: Sir Christopher Hatton, the Earl of Leicester, Sir Francis Walsingham and Lord Admiral Lincoln were all enthusiastic investors in the venture. Only the cautious Lord Burghley declined to participate, thoroughly disapproving of the whole concept, considering it tantamount to piracy as England was not at war with Spain at the time. Thus Drake was controversially chosen ahead of his more senior seafaring colleagues, much to their acute disappointment and irritation, as it was widely realized that this was a unique opportunity to become hugely rich and famous. Although Drake enjoyed the Queen's confidence, he was distrusted by many of his maritime colleagues and widely regarded by most of the more prominent royal courtiers as a bumptious upstart and far too big for his sea boots. In the end, the results of his voyages would totally vindicate Elizabeth's controversial judgement.

Drake was thirty-four years of age at the beginning of the voyage; his jaunty appearance appealed to the Queen, who greatly enjoyed his company, as he made a refreshing change from her sycophantic courtiers, bringing a welcome breath of salt air into the somewhat artificial atmosphere of the Court. Drake was the Queen's kindred spirit, her alter ego whenever she was in an aggressive mood, the warrior queen determined to take on the world. They suited each other's purpose, and Elizabeth realized that she could exploit that ego to her own personal benefit.

Drake's ship was three-masted, displacing around 140 tons, carrying a crew of around 150 including his young brother, Thomas, and John Hawkins's nephew, William. Originally the vessel had been named the
Pelican
but this was changed to
Golden Hind
, a beast that featured on the coat of arms of his patron Sir Christopher Hatton:

The famous voyage of Sir Francis Drake into the South Sea and there hence about the Whole Globe of the earth begun in the yeere of our Lord 1577. . . . This 15 day of November in the yeere of our Lord 1577. M. Francis Drake with a fleete of five ships and barques, and to the number of 164 men, gentlemen and sailers departed from Plimmouth.
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They sailed westwards down the English Channel and out into the Atlantic Ocean which they crossed without incident to make landfall on the coast of Brazil. Shortly afterwards there occurred a curious incident involving one of the members of the crew, Thomas Doughty, who, it has been alleged, was placed on the
Golden Hind
by Burghley for the specific purpose of spying on Drake. Although a long-standing friend and colleague of Drake, Doughty was accused of mutiny and heresy. He was tried and found guilty. Before his execution, Doughty dined with Drake and the two of them took communion together from the ship's chaplain Francis Fletcher: ‘Whereupon done, the place of execution made ready, he having embraced our Generall and taken his leave of all the company, with prayers for the Queene's Majestie and our realme, in quiet sort of way laid his head to the blocke, where he ended his life.'
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Drake was later to excommunicate Francis Fletcher merely for preaching a sermon that did not meet with his approval. After the voyage, the Spanish tried to bribe John Doughty, the brother of the executed man, to assassinate Drake.

Just over a month later, Drake's small fleet entered the Straits of Magellan, named after the great Portuguese navigator who had sailed around the world some fifty years earlier: ‘The land on both sides is very huge and mountainous . . . covered with snow. This strait is extremely cold, with frost and snow continually. The trees seem to stoope with the burden of the weather.'
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Shortly afterwards, Drake and his company were hit by a ferocious storm and blown off course well to the south. This mishap had some benefit for it established that South America and Antarctica were not joined together as had previously been supposed, but separated by many miles of empty ocean. Nearly forty years were to pass before the Dutch explorer, Willem Schouten, sailed around the most southerly tip of South America and named the cape Hoorn, after the place where he was born.

When the gale finally abated, Drake was able to resume his trip northwards into the Pacific, the first Englishman to sail this ocean. This manoeuvre caught the Spaniards completely by surprise and wholly unprepared, their territory along the west coast of South America being virtually unprotected. The fox had appeared among the golden geese: Drake was able to sail slowly northwards along the west coast of America, completely unmolested, free to attack and loot Spanish towns and shipping at will. He discovered his crock of gold when he encountered the
Nuestra Señora de la Concepciòn
, off the northern coast of Peru, out of Lima bound for Panama. This giant galleon proved to be a veritable floating treasure house, heavily burdened with gold, silver, jewels and precious gems, there being more than 20 tons of silver aboard. It took Drake and his crew almost a week to transfer this hoard of treasure from the Spanish galleon into the
Golden Hind
.

Continuing northwards, Drake landed on the Californian coast at a place thought to be near the location of the modern city of San Francisco: ‘Our Generall called this country Nova Albion and that for two causes. The one in respect of the white bankes and cliffes, which lie towards the sea: and the other because it might have some affinite with our Country in name which sometime so was called.'
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Just prior to their departure a huge wooden post was erected upon which was fixed a metal plate together with a sixpenny coin featuring the Queen's portrait and coat of arms. Upon the plate was prominently written: