John Hopkins
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
It is a 150-ton ship, double-planked and lead-sheathed for strength, and carries 11 guns.
The co-commander of the fleet is a nobleman and soldier named Thomas Doughty, a friend of Drake's since the Antrim campaign and who has been instrumental in planning the expedition.
The journey starts inauspiciously.
Fierce storms force them to return to port, and it is not until the 13th of December that they once again brave the open seas.
They first sail south to the Moroccan coast, stealing the cargo of any Spanish ships unlucky enough to cross their path.
Sometimes the crews of such vessels are taken prisoner and ransomed.
At other times, they are abandoned on shore and their ships burned.
From Morocco, the fleet turns west and crosses the Atlantic Ocean.
It is on this leg of the voyage that the relationship between Drake and the aristocratic Doughty begins to sour.
After relieving him of his command, Drake initially ties Doughty to the mast.
It's a humiliating punishment, but worse is to come.
The following June, a small fleet arrives off the coast of southern Argentina.
Drake orders all his men ashore before assembling an impromptu courtroom.
Claiming that the Queen had given him command, he accuses Doughty of mutiny alongside a litany of other crimes, and forces a hastily selected jury to decide his fate.
On Argentina's Atlantic coast, a harsh winter wind whips across a rocky promontory that juts out into the restless ocean.
Thomas Doughty shivers inside his thick woolen cloak.
On his knees, on the floor of a large tent, he's trying not to think about the cold seeping into his joints.
He glances at Francis Drake kneeling next to him.
The other man seems immune to any discomfort.