Francis Drake

Sir Francis Drake, Vice Adm, (c. 1540 – January 28, 1596) was an English privateer, navigator, naval pioneer, naval raider, politician, and civil engineer of the Elizabethan period. He was the first Englishman (and the first captain of a non-Spanish ship) to circumnavigate the globe. He was second in command of the English fleet which defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588.

Drake in popular culture

• A popular legend holds that if England is ever in peril, beating Sir Francis Drake's drum will cause him return to save the country. This is a variation of the sleeping hero folktale.
• Drake's exploits were extolled by the patriotic Victorian poet Sir Henry Newbolt in the poem Drake's Drum. A similarly named poem was also written by the late Victorian poetess Norah M. Holland.
• During his circumnavigation of the globe, Drake posted a plate upon leaving his landing place on the West coast of North America, claiming the land for England. In the 1930s, it appeared that Drake's plate had been found. Forty years later, scientists confirmed that the plate was a hoax, as had been suspected. Later information attributed the hoax to E Clampus Vitus.
• There is a high school named for Drake in San Anselmo, California.
• A major East-West road in Marin County, California is named Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. It connects Point San Quentin on San Francisco Bay with Point Reyes and Drakes Bay. Each end is near a site considered by some to be Drake's landing place.
• One of the four houses of British public school Churcher's College is named for Drake.
• In the Jennings series of novels, the fictional Linbury Court Preparatory School also has a house named after Drake, to which the main characters, Jennings and Darbishire, belong.
• Though England considers him a hero, Spaniards regard Drake as a cruel and bloodthirsty pirate who used to sack defenseless Spanish harbors. Drake, or Draco, to give his Spanish name, was used as a bogeyman for centuries after his vicious raids.