Golden Hind

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Golden Hind (disambiguation).

Replica of the Golden Hind docked in St Mary Overie Dock, London.
Career (England) RN Ensign
Name: Pelican, then Golden Hind(e)
Launched: 1577
Sponsored by: Queen Elizabeth I of England
Renamed: 1577 – Pelican to Golden Hind(e)
Fate: Disintegrated and broken up approximately 400 years ago; two replicas exist
General characteristics
Displacement: 300 tons
Length: 120 ft (37 m)
Beam: 18 ft (5.5 m)
Draught: 9 ft (2.7 m)
Propulsion: wind
Speed: 8 knots (15 km/h)
Complement: 80–85
Armament: 22 guns
Armour: none

The Golden Hind (or Golden Hinde) (pronounced highnd) was an English galleon best known for its global circumnavigation between 1577 and 1580, captained by Sir Francis Drake. She was originally known as the Pelican, but was later renamed by Drake mid-voyage in 1577, as he prepared to enter the Strait of Magellan, calling it the Golden Hind to compliment his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton, whose armorial crest (family coat of arms) was a golden 'hind' (the heraldic term for a female deer). Hatton was one of the principal sponsors of Drake's world voyage.

Contents

[edit] History

Further information: Francis Drake

In 1577 Sir Francis Drake was chosen as the leader of an expedition intended to pass around South America through the Strait of Magellan and to explore the coast that lay beyond. The expedition was personally supported by Queen Elizabeth, which suited him well - he had official approval to benefit himself and the queen, as well as to cause the maximum damage to the Spaniards. This would eventually culminate into the Anglo–Spanish War. Before setting sail, Drake met the queen face-to-face for the first time and she said to him, "We would gladly be revenged on the King of Spain for divers injuries that we have received."[1] The explicit object was to "find out places meet to have traffic." Drake, however, devoted the voyage to piracy, without official admonishment in England.[2] He set sail in December with five small ships, manned by fewer than 200 men, and reached the Brazilian coast in the spring of 1578. His flagship, the Pelican, which Drake later renamed the Golden Hind, weighed only about 100 tons.[3]

On March 1, 1579, the Golden Hind took the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, which had the largest treasure captured to that date - over 360,000 Pesos [4]. The six tons of treasure took six days to transship [5]. Subsequently Drake sailed North, probably to around San Francisco Bay, claiming this land as 'Nova Albion', leaving on July 23 [6]. He then came back across the Pacific, reaching the Cape of Good Hope on June 18, 1580 and Sierra Leone on July 22 [7]. On September 26, 1580, Francis Drake took his ship into Plymouth Harbour with only 56 of the original crew of 100 left aboard [8]. Despite Spanish protests about his piratical conduct while in their imperial waters, Queen Elizabeth herself went aboard the Golden Hind, which was lying at Deptford in the Thames estuary, and personally bestowed a knighthood on him [9]; her share of the treasure came to almost £160,000 [...] enough to pay off her entire foreign debt and still have £40,000 left over to invest in a new trading company for the Levant. Her return and that of other investors came to £47 for every £1 invested, or a total return of 4,700% [10].

[edit] Replicas

The second replica in Brixham, England during low tide
The second replica in Brixham, England during low tide

A modern full size authentic replica of the ship, also called the Golden Hinde, was built by traditional handcraft in Appledore, North Devon and launched in 1973. It has travelled more than 140,000 miles (225,000 km), a distance equal to more than five times around the globe. Like the original, it has circumnavigated the world. It first sailed, in 1973, to San Francisco to commemorate Sir Francis Drake's claiming of California for Queen Elizabeth I. In 1979-1980, it retraced Drake's around the world route. In 1981-1984, it berthed in Britain and was established as an educational museum. In 1984-1985, it circumnavigated the British Isles and then sailed to the Caribbean. In 1986, it sailed through Panama Canal to Canada for the The World's Fair in Vancouver. In 1987, its began a US tour, visiting ports in Washington, Oregon, and California. In 1988, it sailed back through the Panama Canal from California to Texas. In 1989, it visited ports in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1990-1991, it visited ports in the east coast of the US. In 1992, it returned to tour the UK. It has been featured in three films, Swashbuckler (1976), Shogun (1979) and Drake's Venture (1980). Since 1996 it has been berthed at St Mary Overie Dock on Cathedral Street, in Bankside, Southwark, London, between Southwark Cathedral and Clink Street ( 51°30′25″N, 0°5′25″W). It hosts visits from schools in which children can dress up as Tudor sailors and receive living history lessons about Elizabethan naval history.

A second replica has been permanently moored in the harbour of the sea port of Brixham in Devon ( 50°23′48″N, 3°30′46″W) since 1963.

[edit] Details

A front view, cramped in between tall buildings the Golden Hind lies in a small dock on the River Thames
A front view, cramped in between tall buildings the Golden Hind lies in a small dock on the River Thames
  • Crew in the 16th century: 20 officers and gentlemen, from 40 to 60 crew, including a Master, Mate, Cook and 10 to 12 deckhands. The average height was 5'4" but many of the crew selected were taller to make more effective fighters. Francis Drake was about 5'6" tall.[11]
  • Masts: 3
    • Sails 6, 5 square sails and lateen
  • Hull: wooden
  • Hull dimensions:
    • Length:
      • Overall: 120 ft (36.5 m)
      • Hull: 102 ft (31 m)
      • Waterline: 75 ft (23 m)
    • Breadth: 22 ft (6.7 m)
    • Depth: 13.5 ft (4.1 m)
    • Displacement: 300 tons (305 tonnes)
  • Beam: 20 ft (6 m)
  • Height of mainmast: 92 ft (27 m)
  • Sail area: 4150 sq ft (386 m²)
  • Speed (sail): 8 knots (15 km/h)
  • Steering: Drake used a pole attached to the rudder called a "whip staff". For safety, a conventional wheel is used in the two replicas.
  • Capstan: used for hauling up the anchor, located in the armoury and gun deck
  • Crew complement: 80-85
  • Armaments: 22 guns
    • 2 Peteras (small guns) on poop deck
    • 2 Peteras on fore deck
    • 2 Falcons (long range guns using two pound shot) in forecastle
    • 2 Falcons in stern
    • 14 Minions (guns using four pound shot) on gun deck
  • Load: ca. 100-150 tons (100-150 tonnes)

[edit] Other modern ships of the same name

For many years, a Great Lakes dry bulk carrier was named Golden Hind, in honour of the original ship. She was a steam turbine powered tanker built in Collingwood, Ontario, during 1951-1952. She sailed as the Imperial Woodbend under the Canadian flag for Imperial Oil. Transformed during the winter of 1954-1955 when Imperial's need for her ended, she was converted to a 601.50' dry bulk carrier at Port Weller, Ontario. She resumed sailing for the Mohawk Navigation Company. Carrying primarily iron ore and grain cargoes, she sailed the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence Seaway for many years until the downturn in the North American steel industry and changing patterns in the grain trade spelled her end. Laid up throughout much of the early half of the 1980s due to lack of cargoes, the veteran ore carrier was finally sold for scrap in 1986 after making a handful of trips for the Groupe Desgagnes fleet.

[edit] In popular culture

The onscreen symbol of Westward Television was a silver model of the Golden Hind.

On Firesign Theatre's album Everything You Know Is Wrong, a character named Bob Hind hosts a travel program called "The Golden Hind."

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Sir Francis Drake" by Lord Simon Fitz Tomas
  2. ^ Kelsey, Harry, Sir Francis Drake; The Queen's Pirate, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1998, ISBN 0-300-07182-5
  3. ^ Cummins, John, Francis Drake: The Lives of a Hero, 1996, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0312163657
  4. ^ To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World (2004) Herman, A. Harper Collins, New York ISBN 0-06-053424-9 p.88
  5. ^ To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World (2004) Herman, A. Harper Collins, New York ISBN 0-06-053424-9 p.89
  6. ^ To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World (2004) Herman, A. Harper Collins, New York ISBN 0-06-053424-9 p.90
  7. ^ To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World (2004) Herman, A. Harper Collins, New York ISBN 0-06-053424-9 p.94
  8. ^ Turner, Michael. (2005). In Drake's Wake - The Early Voyages, Paul Mould Publishing. ISBN 978-1904959212
  9. ^ John Sugden, "Sir Francis Drake" Simon Schuster New York, ISBN 0671758632
  10. ^ To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World (2004) Herman, A. Harper Collins, New York ISBN 0-06-053424-9 p.94
  11. ^ Rodger, N.A.M. The Safeguard of the Sea; A Naval History of Britain 660-1649. (London, 1997).

[edit] External links