THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 25, 1995 TAG: 9506230702
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GEORGE TUCKER
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Sir Francis Drake, the intrepid English sea dog whose attacks on 16th century Spanish shipping made him a legend in his lifetime, was the first international celebrity to visit a geographical spot within the present circulation area of The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star.
Drake landed twice on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in June 1586. Before that, the red-bearded terror of the Spanish Main already had gained the nickname ``El Draque'' (translated: the Dragon) from his enemies.
Born in Devonshire, England, Drake began his nautical career as a boy. Six years before his visit to what is now eastern North Carolina, he returned triumphantly to England in September 1580 as the first English captain to circumnavigate the globe.
The hold of the Golden Hind, the ship in which he had accomplished this daring piratical feat, was loaded with gold, silver and jewels. Proud of her freewheeling buccaneer, Queen Elizabeth I, who received a large share of the loot, knighted Drake on the quarter-deck of his vessel then riding at anchor in the Thames.
Five years later, Drake was again at sea in command of 25 vessels headed for the West Indies to wreak vengeance on Spain's New World colonies in retaliation for the seizure of English ships in Spanish ports.
It was that mission that brought him into North Carolina waters.
Meanwhile, after receiving a royal charter to set up a colony in the New World in 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh had dispatched a scouting expedition to find a suitable place to spearhead England's transatlantic empire.
Encouraged by reports brought back to him from Roanoke Island, Raleigh sent out 108 men in seven vessels under the command of Sir Richard Grenville to establish a permanent colony there.
After their arrival in 1585, a fort and houses were built, Ralph Lane was chosen governor, and Grenville returned to England for supplies.
At first all went well, and explorations were made as far north as the Norfolk area. By winter, however, food ran short. Since the colonists had also incurred the enmity of the Indians, matters reached a perilous state by the summer of 1586.
Then, on June 8, an English captain, whose ship was lying off Croatan Island, sent word to Lane that he had sighted a fleet of 23 ships sailing toward the coast. This turned out to be Drake's squadron.
On June 10, after his ships had anchored off Roanoke Island, Drake landed and offered to furnish Lane with a fully equipped vessel to enable him to continue his explorations.
Then fate interposed in the guise of the first recorded Virginia-Carolina hurricane. On June 13, a four-day tropical twister howled in from the West Indies that scattered Drake's ships like chips and wrecked the vessel he had allocated to Lane.
After the storm Drake again came ashore and renewed his offers of assistance. But an atmosphere of defeat hung over Roanoke Island like a pall.
In desperation, Lane called another conference, at which it was decided to abandon the colony and return home with Drake.
Two years later when Drake was playing bowls in his native Devonshire, he received the news that Philip II's Invincible Armada had arrived in the English Channel to force Protestant England back into the Catholic fold.
Unperturbed, Drake went on bowling, traditionally remarking, ``Time to finish the game and beat the Spanish after!''
Drake's stellar role in the subsequent destruction of the mighty Spanish fleet is well known.
What is generally not known is that one of our first distinguished visitors and the Englishman who, more than any other, ``influenced the whole country with a desire to adventure into the seas,'' died a characteristic death.
On Jan. 28, 1596, while engaged on another daring raid on the Spanish West Indies, Drake succumbed to a fever at the age of 56, and was buried in Caribbean waters. ILLUSTRATION: Sir Frances Drake
by CNB