Francis Drake

1540 – 1596

Sir Francis Drake was an English sea captain, explorer, and privateer who completed the second European circumnavigation of the globe between 1577 and 1580, raiding Spanish ships and colonies along the Pacific coast of the Americas as he went. He had earlier participated in his cousin John Hawkins's pioneering English slaving voyages from West Africa to the Caribbean in the 1560s, and continued to profit from the early Atlantic slave trade across his career. Queen Elizabeth I knighted him in 1581 aboard his returning ship the Golden Hind.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM