Part 33 (1/2)

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE,

Young Drake--for that was his name--did get on in spite of his difficulties; he worked hard at his duty until he became a captain of two small s.h.i.+ps, one of seventy, the other of thirty tons, and with these he sailed to fight the Spaniards, who were at that time our enemies, away across the ocean in Central America.

He not only fought them, but was successful in taking some of their s.h.i.+ps and a great deal of valuable booty from their towns.

On his return home he was promoted to command a large expedition of five s.h.i.+ps, the biggest of which, however, was only 100 tons, and the smallest was 15 tons--no bigger than a fis.h.i.+ng smack.

With these he sailed down the West Coast of Africa, then across to Brazil and down the South American coast till he rounded the end of it through the dangerous and difficult Straits of Magellan into the Pacific. He coasted up the western side of America as far as California, and then struck across the ocean to India, and thence _via_ the Cape of Good Hope to England; this voyage took him nearly three years to complete.

His good s.h.i.+p, the _Golden Hind_, though much battered and wounded with war and weather, was received with great honour at Deptford. The Queen herself went on board, and while there she showed such pleasure at Drake's good work that she knighted him, using his own well-worn sword to make him Sir Francis Drake.

Soon after this King Philip of Spain began to prepare an enormous fleet, and though he told Queen Elizabeth that it was not intended to be used against England, Sir Francis Drake, who was now in command of a small fleet of British s.h.i.+ps, maintained that it could be for no other purpose.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DRAKE'S s.h.i.+P, THE ”GOLDEN HIND.”]

And a secret letter was shortly afterwards intercepted which proved that his suspicions were right.

Drake went off with his fleet and sailed up and down the Spanish coast destroying their s.h.i.+ps and stores wherever he could find them, and thus he hindered their preparations for war. In this way he sank or burnt some 12,000 tons of s.h.i.+pping, which meant a great many s.h.i.+ps in those days.

He merely described it in his report as, ”singeing the Spanish King's beard.”

At the end of 1588, the great Spanish fleet--the Armada--was ready, and sailed against England. But there were a fine lot of British admirals and men awaiting it, for besides Lord Charles Howard of Effingham, the Lord High Admiral, there were Frobisher, and Davis, Walter Raleigh, and Francis Drake.

It is true they had only 67 s.h.i.+ps with which to oppose the 130 of the Spaniards, but they sallied out and tackled them at once before the Spaniards were really ready for them, and drove them into Dunkirk.

Here the Spaniards felt secure and would not come out till one night the English sent fire s.h.i.+ps in among them which forced them to put to sea. Then ensued a tremendous sea fight, in which Drake, in the _Revenge_, took the lead.

The battle lasted all day, with guns roaring and s.h.i.+ps foundering or exploding.

At length the Spaniards drew off northward to the German Ocean, the only line of escape open to them. Round the north of Scotland and Ireland they went, damaged by shot and beset by a gale, so that in the end, out of the magnificent fleet of 130 sail which had set out for the conquest of England, only 53 got back, with only about 9000 out of the original 30,000 men.

NELSON.

Two hundred years after Drake came Nelson. He was the son of a clergyman in Norfolk, a poor, sickly little fellow, and was for a time in the merchant service.

His first step to greatness was when the s.h.i.+p which he was in captured an enemy's s.h.i.+p, and the first lieutenant was ordered to take a boat and some men and go aboard the prize. But owing to the heavy sea which was running the officer gave up the attempt as too dangerous, whereupon Nelson, like a good Scout, stepped forward and offered to go.

He succeeded, and thence was marked as a good officer.

Every boy knows how, after a splendid career of fighting for Britain, he finally won the great sea battle of Trafalgar against the French and Spanish fleets, and fell mortally wounded in the hour of victory.

But his work, and that of other great sea-captains who served with him, completed the supremacy of the British Navy begun by Drake and the sea-dogs of his time.

The navies of our enemies were entirely swept from off the seas, and their merchant s.h.i.+ps could only carry on their trade so long as their countries remained at peace with Britain.