'Golden Hind' - London's docks and shipping

'Golden Hind' (1577 - 1580)

Known for

Port Connection

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Sir Francis Drake's ship for circumnavigating the globe

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.

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