Sir Francis Drake

Elizabethan sea Captain and adventurer

Born in Tavistock, Devon around 1540, his family fled to Kent because of persecution by westcountry Catholics. He went to sea and by the age of 23 was a sea captain.

Drake made his name with his voyages to the Americas and then with his circumnavigation of the world in the Golden Hinde, which he completed in 1580. He became Mayor of Plymouth in 1581 and installed the leat system across Dartmoor to supply the city with water. He also played a prominent role in defeating the Spanish Armada in 1588.

He often visited Exeter and reputedly drank at the Ship Inn - St Martins Lane . Drake is said to have remarked "Next to my own ship I do most love that old Ship in Exon, a tavern in Fish Street, as the people call it, or as the clergy will have it, St. Martin's Lane". It is not certain if he did drink at the Ship, but his friend Sir Walter Raleigh was a local, being born in Budleigh Salterton, so it is possible.

He died off the Panama coast in 1596 while on a voyage to the Caribbean. He was placed in a lead coffin and buried at sea.