Walter
Raleigh (1554 - 1681) was an adventurer,
writer, courtier at the court of Elizabeth 1 and an explorer
of the Americas. Born in 1554 at Hayes Barton in Devon he went
to Oxford University, fought for the Huguenots in the French
religious wars and studied law in London where he was able to
become familiar with court life and the intellectual community.
Raleigh's first venture to America was with his half brother,
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and it may have been during this voyage
that he conceived the plan to establish a colony there. In 1585
he sponsored the first colony on Roanoke Island off present
day North Carolina but this failed as did a second attempt in
1587. Further ventures to South America fared little better
and a search, in 1595, for the legendary El Dorado, the city
of gold, in present day Guyana achieved little. In 1580 Raleigh
went to Ireland to help suppress a rebellion and using his experiences
and posing as an expert on Irish affairs he won favour with
Queen Elizabeth 1, was knighted and became one of the most powerful
men in England. He temporarily lost favour when the Queen discovered
that he had married one of her maids. However , his return to
power was short lived as James 1, who had succeeded the throne
on the death of Elizabeth 1, disliked Raleigh. In 1603 Raleigh
was accused of plotting against the king and sentenced to death
but James 1 commuted the sentence to one of life imprisonment.
Raleigh went to the Tower of London for 13 years during which
time he penned the first volume of his History of the World
and several poems including The Last Fight of the Revenge and
The Discovery of Guiana. These works impressed the Elizabethan
intellectuals and he became the hero of the heir to the throne,
Prince Henry, who tried to secure Raleigh's release from prison.
Unfortunately, Prince Henry died in 1612 which frustrated Raleigh
who then proposed to King James that he would give him a fortune
in gold if he was allowed to return toGuiana. The king agreed
on the condition that the Spanish were not offended in any way.
The 1616 expedition was a disaster. In Guiana Raleigh's son
was killed when, with an aide, he was sent to find El Dorado
and attacked a Spanish settlement. Sir Walter Raleigh then returned
to England where James 1, invoking the 1603 death sentence,
had him beheaded on 29th Octob er, 1618.
John Davis or Davys
(c. 1550-1605), was one of the greatest of the Elizabethan
seamen and explorers. He went to sea as a boy, and being a west-country
man (he was born near Dartmouth, in Devon) was friendly with
the two great seafaring families of that neighbourhood, the
Gilberts and the Raleighs, who between them did much to rouse
and nourish his enthusiasm for maritime exploration. In 1583
he became convinced that navigation was possible between Europe
and the Far East around the north of America (the Northwest
passage) and two years later he had persuaded the English authorities
to fit out an expedition under his command to explore the northern
seas west of Greenland. In all he made three voyage in search
of the passage (1585, 1586, and 1587) and though he penetrated
as far north and west as Hudson's Bay, he just missed, as had
Martin Frobisher before him, discovering Hudson's Bay, though
he did apparently sight Hudson's Strait. Many of the names still
on the map of the Arctic are memorials to his endeavours; the
great strait which bears his own name, Exeter Sound, Cape Walsingham,
Cumberland Sound, etc. He was home in time from his last expedition
to command the Black Dog in the battle of the Spanish Armada
in 1588 and in 1589 was in the Earl of Cumberland's fleet operating
off the Azores. He was taken on as pilot and navigator by Thomas
Cavendish in his second privateering expedition round the world
in 1591, which proved a fiasco. Davis's participation in this
doubtful venture arose partly, it appears, from Cavendish's
suggestion that a search might be made for the Northwest passage
from the western end rather than from the eastern. When Cavendish
deserted his little fleet at the entrance to the Strait of Magellan,
Davis went on alone with his own ship to attempt the passage
of the Strait but was driven back by storms. On his way home
to England, he discovered the Falkland Islands. Davis was more
than a skilled navigator; he was also author of two excellent
books on navigation, (The Seaman's Secrets in 1594 and The World's
Hydrographical Description in 1595) and the inventor of the
back-staff and double quadrant, known as Davis's quadrant, which
remained a principal instrument of navigation until the reflecting
quadrant was introduced by Hadley in 1731. The remainder of
Davis's life was spent mainly in voyaging, particularly to the
Far East. He was master (navigator) of Raleigh's flagship in
the expedition to Cadiz and the Azores, 1596-7 he went as pilot
of a Dutch expedition to the East Indies (1598-1600) in which
he only just avoided being killed by treachery in Sumatra. He
was first pilot to Sir James Lancaster in 1601-3 in his voyage
to the east on behalf of the East India Company; and in 1604
sailed in the same situation with Sir Edward Michelborne, but
was killed the following year by Japanese pirates near Sumatra.
John
Hawkins (1532 - 1595) was the son of a wealthy sea captain
and born in Plymouth, Devon. As a young man he went on trading
voyages and soon heard stories about the riches which were to
be found across the sea towards the west. Fired with enthusiasm
he went on to become one of the bravest and boldest Elizabethan
seamen and one of the first to undermine Spanish domination
in the West Indies. He made many trading voyages to America
as a merchant. Unfortunately, although regarded as a hero, some
of his expeditions and actions were, in todays terms, of a dubious
nature. In 1562 he set sail for Africa where he captured 300
of the local native population to sell as slaves. At Santo Domingo,
in the West Indies, the colonists, although forbidden by Spanish
law to trade with any other nation, were eager to buy the slaves
in exchange for pearls, hides, ginger and sugar. A second voyage
some two years later was equally profitable. However, a third
voyage in 1568 came to a disastrous end off the coast of Mexico.
Hawkins had already broken Spanish law by selling a cargo of
slaves to the colonists in the Caribbean so when he, together
with his cousin Francis Drake who had accompanied him, sought
refuge for their six ships in Veracruz they were attacked by
an armed Spanish fleet. Luck held for Hawkins and Drake as they
were able to escape but the other four vessels were destroyed
or captured. Following these exploits to the West Indies Hawkins
came ashore and worked in the service of Elizabeth I for 20
years eventually becoming treasurer and controller of the navy.
During this time he built up England's fleet with the objective
of challenging Spanish supremacy at sea. He redesigned ships
to make them faster, added increased canon and fire power. His
foresight was rewarded when, in 1588 and as a vice admiral,
he saw the defeat of the Spanish Armada for which he was knighted
for gallantry. Back at sea in 1595 he sailed with Sir Francis
Drake on an expedition during the course of which he had hoped
to rescue his son who was being held captive by the Spanish
in Lima, Peru. The voyage was his last. Contracting dysentery
Hawkins died on 12th November, 1595 near Puerto Rico and was
buried at sea.
Bartholomew Gosnold
(d. 1607) commanded the Concord which had been chartered
by Sir Walter Raleigh for a trading voyage across the Atlantic.
When he reached the coast of Maine he turned northwards eventually
landing at Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard giving them both their
names. He returned to England with a cargo of furs purchased
from the Indians and promoted the colonisation of the area.
Interest was aroused and a charter was granted to the London
and Plymouth companies 1606. Gosnold together with Christopher
Newport returned to Virginia in 1607 with three ships carrying
the first Jamestown colonists. He was actively involved in the
running of the colony but died of swamp fever later the same
year.
George Dixon (c. 1755-1800),
British navigator, sailed with Captain James Cook in his third
voyage of discovery, and was made a post-captain in the British
Navy on his return. In 1785 he sailed on a commercial venture
in the ship Queen Charlotte to the coasts of British Columbia,
partly to develop the fur trade and partly for exploration.
Among his discoveries were Queen Charlotte's Island, Port Mulgrave,
Norfolk Bay, and Dixon's Archipelago. On his return to England
he became a teacher of navigation at Gosport, near Portsmouth,
and was the author of The Navigator's Assistant, published in
1791.
John
Hawkins (1532 - 1595)
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