The seafaring career of Francis Drake—English sea…
November 1595 CE
The seafaring career of Francis Drake—English sea captain, renowned pirate, a privateer, a navigator, a slaver, and a politician—is now legend, making him a hero to the English but a pirate to the Spaniards to whom he is known as El Draque, 'Draque' being the Spanish pronunciation of 'Drake'.
His name in Latin is Franciscus Draco ('Francis the Dragon').
King Philip II is claimed to have offered a reward of twenty thousand ducats, about four million pounds (six and a half-million dollars) by modern standards, for his life.
His exploits, like those of his second cousin, Admiral Sir John Hawkins, the English shipbuilder, naval administrator and commander, merchant, navigator, and slave trader, will continue into his mid fifties.
Hawkins, now sixty-three, accompanies Drake on a treasure-hunting voyage to the West Indies.
Following a disastrous campaign against Spanish America where he had suffered several defeats in a row, he unsuccessfully attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1595.
The Spanish gunners from El Morro Castle shoot a cannonball through the cabin of Drake's flagship, but he survives.
Hawkins, however, falls sick and dies at sea off Puerto Rico on November 12, 1595; his son Richard succeeds him.