Thomas Cavendish

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An engraving from Holland's Hweerologia, titled "Thomas Candish, Armiger. Animum fortuna sequatur," (The soul follows chance).

Sir Thomas Cavendish (or Candish) (1555-1592) was born in Trimley St. Martin near Ipswich, Suffolk, England. He was a descendant of Roger Cavendish, brother to Sir John Cavendish from whom the Dukes of Devonshire and the Dukes of Newcastle derive their family name of Cavendish.

Thomas Cavendish was known as "the Navigator". Cavendish was the first deliberate circumnavigator. While others had preceded Cavendish in circumnavigating the globe, this had not been their intent at the outset of their voyages. For example, Cavendish circumnavigated the globe shortly after Francis Drake. , but Drake's circumnavigation was completed only as the safest and most expedient route home. Prior to his circumnavigation, Cavendish shared in Sir Richard Grenville's expedition to Virginia in 1585.

In 1586 he sailed with three ships for the Pacific where he burned three Spanish towns and thirteen ships. In 1587 he visited the ruins of the failed Spanish settlement of Rey Don Felipe and renamed it Port Famine.

He seized the Santa Anna off Acapulco. He returned via the Cape of Good Hope to England with only one of his ships, the Desire, in 1588, after which he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. Off Acapulco, Cavendish took with him two Japanese adventurers, only known through their Christian names, Christopher and Cosmas, who accompanied him during his expeditions between 1587 and 1591.

A second expedition in 1591 onboard the Lester, in which he was accompanied by John Davis onboard the Desire, brought him to the Brazil harbour port of Santos, which he looted. Further going south to the Strait of Magellan, his ship nearly foundered. Cavendish then went back to Brazil where he lost most of his crew in a battle against the Portuguese. He crossed the Atlantic towards Saint Helena with the remains of the ship, but died off Ascension Island. John Davis continued to discover the Falkland Islands, before returning to England with most of the crew lost to starvation and illness.