Voyage
Sir Francis Drake took many important voyages both unsuccessful and successful. Many of his voyages were for trading slaves in Africa. So he became an expert in navigation around the West Indies and the Atlantic Ocean. One voyage of his was in 1567 when sailing to Africa with his cousin for the slave trade. Another was in 1572 when he had his first independent voyage to panama. Along many of his voyages he seized gold and many riches from the Spanish. This ultimately led him to accept the Queens demands in 1585 to sail to the Spanish ports. There he helped defeat the Spanish Armada. Also in 1589, he had a failed voyage to Portugal to defeat remaining Spanish Armada ships and died during his journey. Perhaps his most famous voyage of all was during 1577 and 1580. Drake had been the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world. He was instructed by Queen Elizabeth to find a Northwest Passage and go all the way around the earth. He started in Plymouth in 1577 with his ship, the Golden Hind, and 4 other ships. His main reason for sailing was to gain the riches and obtain gold from the Spanish. He would do this by capturing the ports and taking the gold and other valuables of the Spanish. When sailing through the Strait of Magellan and into the Pacific he encountered multiple storms. Three of his boats were lost and one became separated from him and never completed the trip. After surviving the storms he sailed across the pacific, into the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, and up around Africa to get back to Plymouth, England. On September 26,1580 Drake had return with his ship and only 56 crew members remained. He became very famous and his journey is very important in history because of the many riches he brought back. Sir Francis Drake was officially the first Englishman to circumnavigate the entire world even though he faced many hardships along the way.