The First Global Age, 1450 ce to 1770 ce | 329

Great Storm of 1703 ce

The Great Storm of 1703 ce, a massive hurricane, devastated coastal England on
November 26, 1703 (December 7, of the modern calendar). Although wind speeds
and trajectories are uncertain, given the state of meteorological measurements at
the time, contemporary accounts indicate that this storm was among the worst
natural disasters of the era. People received no advance warning before the storm
appeared on the horizon. Winds uprooted thousands of trees and heavy rains
flooded fields, drowning people and cattle. In London, thousands of brick chimneys
were toppled and many homes were destroyed.
Losses were particularly heavy among sailors and shipping. Several dozen ships
were lost at sea, along with most of their crews; other ships were blown hundreds
of miles off course. Hundreds of ships anchored in the Thames River were torn from
their moorings and blown upriver, suffering heavy damage. The Royal Navy lost 10
ships of the line, including the 90-gun Vanguard, and several smaller warships. The
exact death toll is uncertain, but exceeded 10,000 people—many of them sailors
who went down with their ships. Sailors on board had little chance of survival be-
cause of the condition of the seas they found themselves in.
Matthew Blake Strickland

Further Reading
Backscheder, Paula R. 1989. Daniel Defoe: His Life. Baltimore and London: John Hopkins
University Press.
Healey, George Harris. 1955. The Letters of Daniel Defoe. Oxford, Clarendon Press.
Richette, John. 2008. The Cambridge Companion to Daniel Defoe. Cambridge University
Press.

Drake, Sir Francis, ca. 1540–1596 ce

Sir Francis Drake was an English explorer and privateer who became famous for
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his successful raids against Spanish ports and shipping. He attacked the port of
Cadiz in 1587 ce and fought against the Spanish Armada in 1588 ce.
Born in Crowndale, Devon, Drake was the first child of Edmond Drake, and
a cousin of John Hawkins (1532–1595 ce), a famous admiral who introduced
him to life at sea. Francis Drake sailed with Hawkins on several raiding and
slaving expeditions in the 1560s, and by 1568 ce he commanded his own ship.
Between 1569 and 1575 ce, Drake attacked Spanish settlements, ships, and cara-
vans in Central America—often cooperating with other English or French
privateers, as well as cimarrons (escaped black slaves). He acquired a small

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 330 | The Sea in World History

fortune in the process, which he used to purchase land for his family and a ship for
himself.
In 1577 ce, Drake developed a plan with Sir Francis Walshingham for a priva-
teering voyage around the world. Walshingham, John Hawkins, and Queen
Elizabeth I (1533–1603 ce) helped finance the voyage. The five-ship expedition,
led by Drake in the Golden Hind, departed in the fall and set sail for the African
coast, planning to continue to South America and then circumnavigate the conti-
nent and attack Spain’s possessions on its Pacific coast. Drake’s subordinate cap-
tains proved unruly and two of them were later convicted of mutiny and beheaded,
but the fleet successfully captured Spanish and Portuguese merchant ships off the
coast of Morocco. Three of his captains turned back for England rather than navi-
gate the Straits of Magellan, and thus Drake entered the Pacific with only two
ships. Sailing north along the coast Drake attacked ships and settlements, spread-
ing fear and acquiring more loot than his ships could carry. Off Lima, Peru, he
captured a Spanish treasure ship loaded with gold. Reaching roughly as far north
as modern San Francisco, they turned west and crossed the Pacific, arriving home
at Plymouth on September 26, 1580 ce. Having amply rewarded his investors and
completed the first round-the-world voyage since Magellan’s expedition, Queen
Elizabeth knighted him the following year. Afterward, he was briefly mayor of
Plymouth and served in Parliament.
Copyright © 2017. ABC-CLIO, LLC. All rights reserved.

Battle between Sir Francis Drake’s

ship, the Golden Hind, and the Span-
ish ship, Nuestra Señora de la Con-
cepción, in March 1579. Sir Francis
Drake was an English explorer and
privateer who became famous for his
successful raids against Spanish ports
and shipping. (Library of Congress)

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 The First Global Age, 1450 ce to 1770 ce | 331

In 1585–86 ce, Drake commanded 21 ships and 1,800 men. He led them to the
Caribbean where they raided Spanish shipping and settlements, holding some set-
tlements for ransom—which failed to yield the wealth Drake expected. On the re-
turn voyage, they evacuated the settlement established at Roanoke by Walter
Raleigh (1552–1618 ce).
In 1587 ce, Drake sailed again, this time against Spain itself. His fleet attacked
the port of Cadiz where he captured four ships and destroyed more than two dozen
others. This disrupted Spain’s most important port and delayed the military prepa-
rations of Spain’s King Philip II (1527–1598 ce). Afterwards, Drake’s fleet cruised
off Spain and intercepted several Spanish convoys, further delaying Philip’s
planned expedition against England.
The following year, the Spanish Armada sailed against England, expecting to es-
cort troop transports across the English Channel. Drake—a vice admiral in the
English fleet—helped repulse the Armada. Drake led an English squadron in the ini-
tial engagement and captured a Spanish ship. Afterward, Drake organized a fire ship
attack on the anchored Spanish fleet, and then led his squadron at the Battle of
Gravelines—the climactic battle of the campaign, which repulsed the Armada.
The following year, Drake, together with Sir John Norris, set out in command of
100 ships and approximately 19,000 soldiers to invade Portugal, aiming to liberate
Portugal from Spanish rule and capture the Azores. The task proved beyond his
force’s means. Although it did provide some support to rebels fighting Spain, the
expedition lost 20 ships and more than 10,000 men to combat and to disease. Despite
this failure, Drake remained an active commander, sailing in August 1595 ce with
John Hawkins and a large fleet to again raid Spain’s Caribbean possessions. After
some early successes, the expedition’s attack on Puerto Rico failed. Drake landed in
December at the Isthmus of Panama, but the fleet was driven back by Spanish sol-
diers. At sea, a deadly fever spread through the fleet, killing many people—includ-
ing Drake, who died on January 27, 1596 ce. He was buried at sea in a lead coffin.
Jakub Basista

Further Reading
Bawlf, Samuel. 2003. The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, 1577–1580. Walker &
Copyright © 2017. ABC-CLIO, LLC. All rights reserved.

Company.
Hakluyt R. 1589 [1965 ed.]. The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the
English Nation. Cambridge: Published for the Hakluyt Society and the Peabody Mu-
seum of Salem at the University Press.
Hughes-Hallett, Lucy. 2004. Heroes: A History of Hero Worship. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf.
Kelsey, Harry. 1998. Sir Francis Drake, the Queen’s Pirate. New Haven, CT: Yale Univer-
sity Press.

The Sea in World History: Exploration, Travel, and Trade [2 Volumes], edited by Stephen K. Stein, ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central,
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