September 26

When Francis Drake limped in to Plymouth England on the 26th in 1580, he became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. He wasn’t the first person to sail around the world, Magellan and others beat him to that by over 60 years, and he wasn’t ‘Sir’ Francis Drake at the time; the whole sir bit would have to wait until 1581. Drake’s ship, the Golden Hind, with its crew of 59 were all that was left of five ships and more than 150 men he had when he left Plymouth in 1577 with a commission from Queen Elizabeth to essentially take what he could from the Spanish ships he might encounter. Drake was quite successful at taking down Spanish treasure ships and Elizabeth’s share of what Drake brought back in the Golden Hind exceeded all of the crown’s income for the entire year, which is why Elizabeth knighted him on April 4, 1581. So much for all the romantic stories that have clung to Drake throughout the centuries, though I suspect that in Spain they have a much different view of him.