The Devon Privateer Who Sailed Around the World in 1577-1580, Captured a Spanish Treasure Ship Off Peru, and Was Knighted Aboard His Own Vessel by Elizabeth I
Francis Drake left Plymouth on 13 December 1577 with five ships. He returned alone in the Golden Hind on 26 September 1580 with about £400,000 of captured Spanish silver from his Pacific raid — about half the English government's annual revenue. He was the first English captain to complete a circumnavigation. Elizabeth I knighted him aboard the Golden Hind at Deptford on 4 April 1581.
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