Global Positioning System Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 6.13.
Chip log (
lower left
), sandglass, and knotted line: the equipment
required for dead reckoning of a sailing ship route. Dead reckoning in this manner
lasted into the nineteenth century.
Photo by Rémi Kaupp.
Pacific—to plunder Spanish possessions once again, in what would be-
come an epic three-year journey.
Drake set out with five small ships and between 164 and 200 sailors plus
a ''mob of adventurers.''
16
His flagship, the
Golden Hind
, which was an
English version of the galleon (fig. 6.14), had a crew of fewer than 100
men. The small flotilla made its way down the eastern coast of South
America. In Patagonia, Drake executed a plotter (interestingly, in the same
region where Magellan had had to deal with a mutiny half a century
earlier). Two of the ships were abandoned near the River Plate; the remain-
ing three passed through the Strait of Magellan, but two of them missed a
rendezvous with
Golden Hind
on the western side. These two passed back
through the strait and made their way to England with the news that Drake
was lost.
Far from it: Drake was fulfilling the purpose of his expedition by plun-
dering Spanish coastal towns and harbors on the coasts of Chile and Peru,
easily taking Spanish ships and their valuable cargoes. Because the Span-
16. Owen (1979). Much has been written about Francis Drake and his famous expedi-
tion. See, for example, Bawlf (2003);
Encyclopedia Britannica
, s.v. ''Francis Drake''; Owen
(1979); and Thrower (1984). Herman (2005) includes a readable account of Drake's un-
savory earlier life.
