Sir Francis Drake was a successful explorer and privateer born in the early 1540's in England. At about 12 or 13 years old he boarded his first ship as an apprentice, and this marked the beginning of his long career at sea. After his master died and left him the ship, Drake sold it off and soon went on some of the first English slave expeditions in Africa, bringing Africans to the "New World" to work as slaves.

Like William Shakespeare, Drake was alive during Queen Elizabeth's reign. He made his living at sea for the most part by attacking Spanish ships laden with treasures from South America, splitting the profits of his expeditions between himself and his Queen. He would also go to the New World himself on voyages with the express purpose of raiding Spanish and Portuguese ports and taking their riches back to England.

Sir Francis Drake is most known for being the first explorer to successfully circumnavigate the globe. Though Magellan had attempted to sail all the way around the world himself before Drake, he did not survive the journey. Drake's trip took 3 years and served to give the English a much more comprehensive understanding of the world around them and the maps they drew of it. Upon his return Queen Elizabeth knighted him, so that from then on he would be Sir Francis Drake and not simply Francis Drake.

After his world adventure, Drake continued attacking Spanish and Portuguese trading ships and ports, and even attacking the Spanish Armada as part of the English fleet. He died at sea of dysentery, a disease caused by an infection in the intestine, and was buried at sea in a lead coffin off the coast of Panama supposedly with some of his latest treasures.

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Text: Nidia Medina; Ewen Ku, Editor