Golden Hind
 Replica of Golden Hind docked in St Mary Overie Dock, London | |
| Career (England) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Pelican, then Golden Hind(e) |
| Launched: | 1577 |
| Sponsored by: | Queen Elizabeth I of England |
| Renamed: | 1578 – Pelican to Golden Hind(e) |
| Fate: | Disintegrated and broken up in late 1600s; two replicas exist |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 100–150 tons |
| Displacement: | 300 tons |
| Length: | 102 ft (31 m) on deck |
| Beam: | 20 ft (6.1 m) |
| Draught: | 9 ft (2.7 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sail; Wind |
| Speed: | 8 knots (15 km/h) |
| Complement: | 80–85 |
| Armament: | 22 guns |
| Notes: | sail area: 386 m² |
Golden Hind or Golden Hinde was an English galleon best known for her circumnavigation of the globe between 1577 and 1580, captained by Sir Francis Drake. She was originally known as Pelican, but was renamed by Drake mid-voyage in 1578, as he prepared to enter the Strait of Magellan, calling her Golden Hind to compliment his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton, whose armorial crest was a golden 'hind' (a female deer). Hatton was one of the principal sponsors of Drake's world voyage.
History
In 1577, Elizabeth I of England chose Sir Francis Drake as the leader of an expedition intended to pass around South America through the Strait of Magellan and to explore the coast that lay beyond. The queen's support was advantageous; Drake had official approval to benefit himself and the queen as well as to cause the maximum damage to the Spaniards. This would eventually culminate in the Anglo–Spanish War. Before setting sail, Drake met the queen face-to-face for the first time and she said to him, "We would gladly be revenged on the King of Spain for divers injuries that we have received."[1] The explicit object was to "find out places meet to have traffic." Drake, however, acted as a privateer, with unofficial support from Queen Elizabeth.[2]
He set sail in December 1577 with five small ships, manned by 164 men, and reached the Brazilian coast in the spring of 1578. Drake's flagship, Pelican, which he renamed Golden Hinde, displaced only about 100 tons.[3]
On 1 March 1579, now in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Ecuador, Golden Hind challenged and captured the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción. This galleon had the largest treasure captured to that date: over 360,000 Pesos.[4] The six tons of treasure took six days to transship.[5]
On 26 September 1580, Francis Drake sailed his ship into Plymouth Harbour with only 56 of the original crew of 80 left aboard.[6] Despite his piratical conduct on his voyages, Queen Elizabeth I herself went aboard Golden Hind, which was lying at Deptford in the Thames Estuary, and personally bestowed a knighthood on him;[7] her share of the treasure came to almost £160,000: "enough to pay off her entire foreign debt and still have £40,000 left over to invest in a new trading company for the Levant. Her return and that of other investors came to £47 for every £1 invested, or a total return of 4,700%."[8]
After Drake's circumnavigation, Golden Hind was maintained for public exhibition in Deptford. This is the earliest known example of a ship being maintained for public display because of her historic significance. Golden Hind remained there for nearly 100 years before she eventually rotted away and was finally broken up.
A table, known as the cupboard (pronounced "cup-board"), in the Middle Temple Hall (in London) is reputed to have been made from the wood of Golden Hind, as is a chair in the Great Hall, Buckland Abbey, Devon. Upon the cupboard is placed the roll of members of Middle Temple, which new members sign when they are called to the Bar. The ship's lantern also hangs in the vestibule of Middle Temple Hall.
Replicas
A replica of Golden Hind was constructed at Adventure Island (amusement park), Southend-on-Sea, Essex. It was constructed from 1947 and opened in 1949 together with a waxworks. Popular at first but by 1992 attendances had dropped, rising maintenance costs together with the need for major renovation to the wooden structure caused its closure in 1997. The ship was replaced by a replica of Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge. This ship was demolished in 2013.[9]
A replica of Golden Hind has been permanently moored in the harbour of the sea port of Brixham in Devon (50°23′48″N 3°30′46″W / 50.39667°N 3.51278°W) since 1963 following its use in the TV series Sir Francis Drake which was filmed in and around the bays of Torbay and Dartmouth. The replica ship used in the TV series cost £25,000 to construct and had no gallery.[10] The ship was destroyed in a storm in 1987, after which it was towed to Dartmouth and scrapped, and replaced with the current replica with a gallery.[11]
A full-size authentic replica of the ship, called Golden Hinde, was built by traditional handcraft in Appledore, North Devon, and was launched in 1973. Since then she has travelled more than 140,000 miles (225,000 km), a distance equal to more than five times around the globe. Like the original ship, she has circumnavigated the globe. She sailed from Plymouth on her maiden voyage in late 1974, arriving on May 8, 1975 [12] in San Francisco, to commemorate Sir Francis Drake's claiming of New Albion, believed to be somewhere in California, for Queen Elizabeth I. Having completed the filming of the TV series 'Shogun' the vessel lay moored in Taura Harbour, Yokohama for over six months. Starting in late 1979 she was sailed back to England via Hong Kong, Singapore, then across the Indian Ocean and through the Red Sea and Mediterranean in time to join the celebrations commemorating the 400th anniversary of Drake's triumphant return to England. Between 1981 and 1984, she was berthed in England and was established as an educational museum, but in 1984–1985 she sailed around the British Isles and then crossed the Atlantic to the Caribbean. In 1986, she passed through the Panama Canal to sail on to British Columbia for the World's Fair in Vancouver. In 1987, she began a tour of the US Pacific coast, visiting ports in the states of Washington, Oregon, and California. In 1988, she passed back through the Panama Canal to visit Texas. In 1989, she visited ports on the Gulf of Mexico. In 1990–1991 she entered a series of seaports on the east coast of the US, in 1992 returning home to tour the British Isles again.
The oceangoing Golden Hinde has been featured in four films, Swashbuckler (1976), Shogun (1979), Drake's Venture (1980) and St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold (2009). Since 1996 she has been berthed at St Mary Overie Dock on Cathedral Street, in Bankside, Southwark, London, between Southwark Cathedral and Clink Street (51°30′25″N 0°5′25″W / 51.50694°N 0.09028°W). She hosts visits from schools in which children can dress up as Tudor sailors and receive living history lessons about Elizabethan maritime history.
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The first replica in Brixham, 1968
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The second replica in Brixham
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Oceangoing replica's front view, cramped in between tall buildings in a small dock on the River Thames
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The figurehead of the replica in London
Details of London replica
- Crew in the 16th century: 20 officers and gentlemen, from 40 to 60 crew, including a Master, Mate, Cook and 10 to 12 deckhands. The average height was 5'4" but many of the crew selected were taller to make more effective fighters. Francis Drake was about 5'6" tall.[13]
- Masts: 3
- Sails 6, 5 square sails and lateen
- Hull: wooden
- Hull dimensions:
- Length:
- Overall: 120 ft (36.6 m)
- Hull: 102 ft (31.1 m)
- Waterline: 75 ft (23 m)
- Breadth: 22 ft (6.7 m)
- Depth: 13.5 ft (4.1 m)
- Displacement: 300 long tons (300 t)
- Length:
- Beam: 20 ft (6.1 m)
- Height of mainmast: 92 feet (28 m)
- Sail area: 4,150 square feet (386 m2)
- Speed (sail): 8 knots (15 km/h)
- Steering: Drake used a pole attached to the rudder called a "whip staff". For safety, a conventional wheel is used in the two replicas.
- Capstan: used for hauling up the anchor, located in the armoury and gun deck
- Crew complement: 80–85
- Armaments: 22 guns
- 2 Peteras (small guns) on poop deck
- 2 Peteras on fore deck
- 2 Falcons (long range guns using two pound shot) in forecastle
- 2 Falcons in stern
- 14 Minions (guns using four pound shot) on gun deck
- Load: ca. 100–150 tons (100–150 tonnes)
- Maximum crew complement: 95
Other modern ships of the same name
For many years, a Great Lakes dry bulk carrier was named Golden Hind, in honour of the original ship. She was a steam turbine powered tanker built in Collingwood, Ontario, during 1951–1952. She sailed as Imperial Woodbend under the Canadian flag for Imperial Oil. Transformed during the winter of 1954–1955 when Imperial's need for her ended, she was converted to a 601.50' dry bulk carrier at Port Weller, Ontario. She resumed sailing for the Mohawk Navigation Company. Carrying primarily iron ore and grain cargoes, she sailed the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence Seaway for many years until the downturn in the North American steel industry and changing patterns in the grain trade spelled her end. Laid up throughout much of the early half of the 1980s due to lack of cargoes, the veteran ore carrier was finally sold for scrap in 1986 after making a handful of trips for the Groupe Desgagnes fleet.
The first-produced example of the Short Brothers G-class passenger flying boats produced just before World War II, for Imperial Airways in mid-1939, bearing the civil registration G-AFCI, was named Golden Hind in honor of Drake's ship.
In popular culture
The onscreen symbol of Westward Television was a silver model of Golden Hind.
Golden Hind featured in the 1963 ITV television series Sir Francis Drake.
On the Firesign Theatre's albums Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers and Everything You Know Is Wrong, a character named Bob Hind hosts a travel programme called "The Golden Hind."
In the episode Hidden Valley of The Cisco Kid, Golden Hind was the name of the ship captained by George Challis.
The train operating company First Great Western operate two services a day named after the Golden Hind. One is a service in the morning from Penzance to London Paddington and the other is a return journey in the evening.
In the 1920 book The Airship "Golden Hind" by Percy F. Westerman, a dirigible that is attempting to circumnavigate the world is named the Golden Hind.
The Golden Hind was used in the 2009 film St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold, and was seen in the film to sail down the Thames in a pirate attack against the film's villain (with the use of CGI).
The Golden Hind is used as Drake's flagship in Elizabeth The Golden Age, (2007) during the battle against the Spanish Armada.
The Golden Hind was the first subject for an Airfix construction kit, first introduced in 1952.
The Golden Hind is a purchasable ship in the Pocket Gems game "Tap Paradise Cove" for iOS.
The Golden Hind is mentioned by a Daemon based on Drake in the iOS Zynga game "Ayakashi: Ghost Guild" for the May–June 2013 event "Dragon's Roar - Summer Breeze Superstar."
In Clive Cussler's book Inca Gold Golden Hind plays an important initial part in the plot of the story.
The Golden Hind is actively sailing the seas of the game "Traveler's Quest" for iOS, seeking treasure for the Captain and crew aboard.
See also
- Ship replica (including a list of ship replicas).
- Galleon.
- Bankside, for information about where the Golden Hind replica is moored.
- British Halfpenny coin, which featured a depiction of the Golden Hind from 1937–1967.
- University of Plymouth Coat of Arms.
- Ceryneian Hind, sometimes known as the Golden Hind.
References
- ↑ "Sir Francis Drake" by Lord Simon Fitz Tomas
- ↑ Kelsey, Harry, Sir Francis Drake; The Queen's Pirate, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1998, ISBN 0-300-07182-5
- ↑ Cummins, John, Francis Drake: The Lives of a Hero, 1996, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-16365-7
- ↑ To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World (2004) Herman, A. Harper Collins, New York ISBN 0-06-053424-9 p.88
- ↑ To Rule the Waves: How t Modern World (2004) Herman, A. Harper Collins, New York ISBN 0-06-053424-9 p.94
- ↑ Turner, -Michael (2005), In Drake's Wake — The Early Voyages, Paul Mould Publishing, ISBN 1-904959-21-0
- ↑ John Sugden (1992), Sir Francis Drake, New York: Simon Schuster, ISBN 0-671-75863-2
- ↑ To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World (2004) Herman, A. Harper Collins, New York ISBN 0-06-053424-9 p.94
- ↑ Hind, Golden. "Southend Timeline". Retrieved 15 July 2014.
- ↑ British Pathe news 1964 http://www.britishpathe.com/video/golden-hind/query/Devon retrieved 7 January 2013
- ↑ Wreck of the Golden Hind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz-4UlKsaH8 retrieved 30 May 2013
- ↑ Spokane Daily Chronicle May 10, 1975
- ↑ Rodger, N.A.M. The Safeguard of the Sea; A Naval History of Britain 660–1649. (London, 1997).
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Golden Hind (ship, 1973). |
- Golden Hinde museum
- Mother Lode Musical Theatre: reenactments of the Drake-Miwok encounter in California
- The Sea Cadet Training Ship Golden Hind, Plymouth
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