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'Golden Hind' (1577 - 1580)
Sir Francis Drake's ship for circumnavigating the globe

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Known for

The Golden Hind. © NMM

This 18-gun privateer was originally built as HMS Pelican, and was used by Sir Francis Drake to circumnavigate the globe. As Drake entered the Magellan Straits, he decided to change the vessel name to Golden Hind. This was to honour his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton, whose crest was a golden hind.

Golden Hind. © NMM

The Golden Hind, was the only vessel to return from Drake’s expedition (five vessels originally set out from England). She returned to drop anchor in Plymouth Sound on 26 September 1580, only the second vessel to have circumnavigated the globe, after the Portuguese explorer Magellan. Drake brought a huge amount of bounty back to England with him. This enabled him to pay all of his investors, including Elizabeth I, forty-seven times their original stake in the expedition.

Port Connection

The Golden Hind was berthed at Deptford, where Elizabeth I knighted Francis Drake in recognition of his feat on 4 April 1581.

A reconstruction of an Elizabethan warship, named the Golden Hinde, is now moored at St Mary Overie Dock. This museum vessel is situated between London Bridge and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

Statistics

· 18 gun privateer
· Displacement of approximately 100 tons
· Square rigged
· 5 decks
· Total expedition fleet of five vessels
· Total complement in the expedition was 170 men

Life Story

15 Nov 1577	'Pelican' leaves Plymouth, but returns due to bad weather
13 Dec 1577	The 'Pelican' sets sail from Plymouth
5 Apr 1578	The vessel sights the coast of Brazil
Jun 1578	Off the east coast of South America
Sept 1578	The 'Pelican' passes through the Straits of Magellan and she is renamed the 'Golden Hind'
Dec 1578	The 'Golden Hind' arrives on the coast of Peru. Captures a Spanish ship and is refitted
1579	Reaches Central America
Oct 1579	Reaches the Philippines
Nov 1579	Reaches the Moluccas (Spice Islands)
Jan 1580	'Golden Hind' strikes a reef, but is saved by dumping cargo
Mar 1580	Reaches Java
26 Sept 1580	The 'Golden Hind' arrives back in Plymouth
4 Apr 1581	Drake is knighted on board the 'Golden Hind'

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