The Sea Dogs were English adventurers or pirates at the time of Elizabeth I of England.[1] They were active from 1560 to 1605.[2]
In the 1560s, John Hawkins was the leader of the Sea Dogs and mainly engaged in attacks on Spanish shipping in the Caribbean.[3] The Sea Dogs would also engage in slave trade from Africa.[3]
Sir Francis Drake was also a member of the Sea Dogs and engaged in the raiding of Spanish shipping as far as San Francisco on the Pacific coast.[3]
Other Sea Dogs were Walter Raleigh and Martin Frobisher.[4]
After 1604, when peace was made with Spain, many Sea Dogs continued their piratical activities by finding employment in the Barbary States, giving rise to Anglo-Turkish piracy, to the embarrassment of the English Crown.[5][6]