Thomas Doughty (explorer)

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For more people with this same name, see Thomas Doughty

Thomas Doughty (?–1578) was an English nobleman who was a close friend of Francis Drake. On Drake's round-the-world voyage that began in 1577, Doughty was given command first of a captured Spanish ship, the Santa María (renamed Mary), and then of Drake's flagship the Pelican (which would soon be re-christened as the "Golden Hind"). Drake soon relieved Doughty of command, however, suspecting him of taking part in an incipient mutiny. In 1578, with the expedition anchored near Puerto San Julian, a natural harbour in Patagonia in the Santa Cruz Province of Argentina. Drake charged Doughty with not only mutiny, but witchcraft. Doughty was convicted by a jury of crewmembers and, after he and Drake received Communion and dined together, he was beheaded.

According to a history of the English Navy, titled "To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World" by Arthur Herman, Doughty's execution set precedent, and established the idea that a ship's captain was its absolute ruler, regardless of the rank or social class of its passengers.