SECRET VOYAGE OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE; 1577-1580, THE

Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce, Apr 2005

THE SECRET VOYAGE OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE; 1577-1580. By Samuel Bawlf. New York: Walker & Co., 2003. Pp. xii/400. USD 28.00. ISBN: 0-8027-1405-6.

In September 1580, Francis Drake returned to England after a three-year round-the-world voyage, most of which was spent harassing Spanish interests in the hitherto safe waters of the eastern Pacific. The assumption that he had been lost at sea was so widely shared that even his wife, believing herself to be a widow, had planned her remarriage. (Pg. 185.) By returning alive, he became the first captain to circumnavigate the globe.5 In recognition of his accomplishments (and the treasure that he had captured from Spanish ships), Queen Elizabeth knighted him a few months later.

Despite the official recognition, the full story of the famous voyage was immediately suppressed. Drake's journals and charts were impounded, publication of an account of the voyage was prohibited, and Drake's men were forbidden (on pain of death) to reveal where they had been. Over the years, many of the details of the voyage were eventually revealed or discovered. Indeed, the Spanish themselves (those from whom the English authorities sought to conceal the full truth) had first-hand knowledge of many of the more audacious incidents of the voyage. But Drake's activities during the summer of 1579, when the Golden Hinde disappeared from sight in the North Pacific, are still something of a mystery.

In The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, Mr. Bawlf-a geographer, amateur maritime historian, and a former minister in the British Columbia government (responsible for the province's historic and archaeological sites)-proposes a new solution to that mystery. Based on his careful study of the original sources and the maps of the period, he argues that Drake sailed all the way to present-day Alaska, much farther than anyone had previously imagined, in search of the western entrance to the fabled Northwest Passage. This would mean that Drake was almost two centuries ahead of the eighteenth-century Europeans (such as Vitus Bering, Juan Ferez, and James Cook) who are generally credited with having first explored the northwest coast of North America.

If Mr. Bawlf is correct, he would also be justified in characterizing Drake's voyage "as one of the greatest in the history of global exploration." (Pg. 335.) Drake is justly famous for his role in the defeat of the Spanish Armada (mentioned here almost in passing, pp. 229-30) and his daring raids on Spanish interests at home and in the Americas, as well as for his successful circumnavigation of the world. But the picture that emerges here is of much more than a daring privateer. The secret portions of his "secret voyage" would suggest an entirely new dimension to this icon of English history.

But even if Mr. Bawlf's theory is incorrect, the remainder of Drake's colorful story is still remarkable. Although the Golden Hinde was barely one hundred feet long, Drake sailed the vessel more than 40,000 miles, much of the time at extraordinary speed (considering his reliance on wind power), through largely uncharted (and often treacherous) waters. He had only the crudest instruments (and he had no instruments at all for determining such basic information as his longitude). He encountered hostile indigenous tribes throughout the voyage. And because he held a well-earned spot at the top of the Spanish most-wanted list, the navy of the most powerful nation on earth was constantly seeking his capture. Even when he was safely in England, his fortunes depended on his successfully navigating the court intrigue that destroyed the careers of many of his contemporaries. Mr. Bawlf tells that story, in the context of the larger political questions of the time, in a manner that will fascinate anyone with an interest in maritime history.

5 Ferdinand Magellan's lieutenant, Juan Sebastian de Elcano, and a handful of his crew had circumnavigated the globe over half a century earlier, but before the voyage was completed Magellan himself had been killed in fighting with the islanders in what is now the Philippines.