The Golden Hind or Hinde was an English galleon best known for its circumnavigation of the globe between 1577 and 1582
The Golden Hind or Hinde was an English galleon best known for its circumnavigation of the globe between 1577 and 1580, captained by Sir Francis Drake. She was originally known as the Pelican, but was renamed by Drake mid-voyage in 1578, as he prepared to enter the Strait of Magellan, calling it the Golden Hind to compliment his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton, whose armorial crest was a golden 'hind' (a female deer). The queen's support was advantageous; Drake had official approval to benefit himself and the queen as well as to cause the maximum damage to the Spaniards. This would eventually culminate in 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." The explicit object was to "find out places meet to have traffic." Drake, however, acted as a privateer, with unofficial support from Queen Elizabeth. On 1 March 1579, now in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Ecuador, the Golden Hind challenged and captured the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción. This galleon had the largest treasure captured to that date: over 360,000 Pesos. The six tons of treasure took six days to tranship. On 26 September 1580, Francis Drake sailed his ship into Plymouth Harbour with only 56 of the original crew of 80 left aboard. Despite his piratical conduct on his voyages, Queen Elizabeth 1 herself went aboard the Golden Hind, which was lying at Deptford in the Thames Estuary, and personally bestowed a knighthood on him; 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%."
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Location: The Golden Hind or Hinde was an English galleon best known for its circumnavigation of the globe
Photo credit: © Rik Hamilton / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: 1577, 1578, 1580, armorial, calling, captained, christopher, circumnavigation, compliment, crest, drake, drake., english, enter, francis, galleon, globe, golden, hatton, hind, hinde, magellan, mid-voyage, originally, patron, pelican, prepared, renamed, sir, strait
