Francis Drake set out to circumnavigate the globe
On this day · 13 December 1577
On December 13, 1577, five ships slipped out of Plymouth on the voyage that made Drake the first Englishman around the world.
On December 13, 1577, Francis Drake and 164 men aboard five ships quietly left Plymouth, England. The flagship was the Pelican, which Drake would rename the Golden Hind mid-voyage in honor of his patron’s crest.
The expedition was as much raid as exploration. Drake pushed through the Strait of Magellan, plundered Spanish ships and coastal towns up the Pacific coast of the Americas, and claimed a stretch of California as New Albion — becoming one of the first Englishmen to see the Pacific.
Of the five ships and 164 men that set out, only the Golden Hind and a remnant of the crew came home.
The Golden Hind sailed back into Plymouth on September 26, 1580, heavy with spices and captured treasure. Drake had become the second man and first Englishman to circumnavigate the world, and the first commander to complete such a voyage and return alive — Magellan having died before his own expedition finished.
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