Book Description
When Sir Francis Drake returned to England in 1580, many questions concerning his momentous voyage were left unanswered—his journals were impounded and his men were forbidden, on pain of death, to divulge where they had been. Drawing on newly uncovered evidence, geographer and maritime historian Samuel Bawlf masterfully reconstructs Francis Drake's historic round-the-world expedition, exploring the drama surrounding the voyage and offering intriguing insights into life at sea in the sixteenth century. But it is Bawlf's assertion of Drake's whereabouts in the summer of 1579 that gives the book even greater originality: from an intensive study of maps of the period, Bawlf shows with certainty that Drake sailed all the way to Alaska—much farther than anyone has heretofore imagined—thereby rewriting the history of exploration in North America.
Customer Reviews:
A Work of Scholarship, Detecting and Speculation.......2007-02-23
Samuel Bawlf is more than just an historian writing about an episode in the exploration of North America's northwest coast, he has taken a mystery and turned it into an interesting and entertaining book. Unlike an academic, Bawlf didn't write this book under pressure to 'publish or perish' or to solidify his appointment to a 'Chair'; he wrote this volume out of love for the subject and an interest in finding out the truth. All of which makes this an enjoyable read.
On returning from his historic voyage, Drake had his crew sequestered in Plymouth while he went to London to report to Queen Elizabeth. In addition to over half a million pounds of plunder (much of it belonging to King Philip II of Spain) he also brought her a report of new lands on the North American continent, plus the possibility that he had found the strait that lead from the Pacific to the Northwest Passage (of which Frobisher has already found the Atlantic side). The Northwest Passage would reduce the sailing distance to the western Pacific coast from 20,000 miles to 3,000.
For reasons of state, the six months Drake spent exploring what became the Canadian and American Pacific Northwest, were never acknowledged to have happened. Times spent in other parts of the voyage were extended to 'erase' this time period. Drake's discoveries were never acknowledged and to this day there are few geographical namings that honor him in this area. The 'secret' was kept so well, that few first or even second-hand accounts have survived, and many of those that do, were 'doctored' to protect the secret.
Bawlf does a masterful job in laying out the clues and making his conclusions.
Interesting book on an interesting time.......2006-06-08
Overall I enjoyed this book. I read it right after a biography of Magellan which made it especially poignant. Drake in many cases landed at places Magellan had previously been to and had to deal with the side or after-effects of Magellan's actions. The book is an easy read and gives a good overview of certain background elements such as Elizabeth and her political considerations. The adventures of Drake and his crew as they circled the world are an exciting read and I learned much.
I have three negative comments on the book: 1) It spent too little time on the Spanish Armada, which may not be the prime topic of the book, but is important to the story. 2) The weird organization at the end with Drake dieing and then the concluding chapters showing where Drake probably visited in the Pacific Northwest. Maybe it works, but it seemed disjointed. and 3) Most important- get a map. Yes lots of old maps are reproduced but not real readable in the paperback and nowhere is there a modern map showing Drake's route. Many latitudes and a few longitudes are given, but without a good memory for the latitude/longitude of say San Francisco, I was a bit lost.
I would recommend this book, but only with accompanying maps.
An extraordinary person and explorer!.......2005-09-25
What a remarkable history and well written book. When you read the first pages you realize that Drake was a great human being and an excellent explorer, navigator(the best of all times) and survivor. In the time when spaniards were around beheading everything, Drake treated the prisoners or natives with dignity.
I was interested in the passing of Magellan's strait and the navigation through America heading north, specially Chile. This is an excellent book to enjoy and I recommend it to everyone.
Adventurous, thought provoking.......2005-01-08
Once the reader gets past the European political chess games of the day, this is a bold, daring and energetic portrayal of possibly the most celebrated English navigator to sail the seas. Not only does Bawlf lure the reader into Drake's numerous exploits around the world, but he also augments the attention level as far as Drakes' secret undertakings to locate the infamous Strait of Anian. His voyage to search out the Northwest Passage is a thrilling experience of confronting and battling storms, plundering Spanish treasure fleets, capturing naval captains, day to day survival tactics, etc.
The author does justice in examining the secretiveness and elusiveness of Drake's northern Pacific mission by detailing and meticulously picking through the available literature to vindicate his whereabouts. Possibly the first expedition to traverse the Pacific into its far northern limits, Drake then heads south to explore Vancouver Island and the Columbia River, two centuries before Cook and others.
For the most part, Drake was the gentleman's pirate, always treating his captives with the utmost regard. Many of his short-term prisoners had a high reverence for the man. It goes without saying, he frustrated Spain's King Philip by constantly evading his nautical strategies.
A very enjoyable and insightful read.
Filling in the dark gaps of a voyage kept secret.......2004-12-05
This is an essential book if you want to understand Queen Elizabeth I's maritime policy. England was late on the oceans and Spain and Portugal were all powerful. They had conquered an immense empire all around the world. Philip II put Elizabeth under pressure with the war in Flanders and the Netherlands against the rebellious protestants, with his capture of the Portuguese crown, and with his maritime power and the promised invasion of England (Invincible Armada) to put Mary Stuart on the throne. Elizabeth will use Sir Francis Drake and other English navigators to build her maritime power and defenses, and to haunt the oceans, seize Spanish ships and their cargoes of gold, silver, spices and other goods, and even raid harbours in New Spain, the West Indies and even Spain and Portugal. But this constant pressure prevented Elizabeth from engaging in the colonial conquests her navigators were ready to do. She remained cautious in front of the menace. But she intelligently worked hand in hand, and particularly purse in purse, with the navigators and London merchants to pay for the investment in her fleet and her defenses. She introduced the practice of « joint-stock companies » to develop her maritime power and her first colonies. This will shape the future for many centuries. On the other hand Sir Francis Drake was the first English navigator to go through Magellan's Strait, up Chile, Peru and Mexico, then to discover and explore the west coast of what is today Canada, Washington and Oregon, from the southern limit of Alaska to Whale Cove in Oregon. He never discovered the northern passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic, though he believed he had, but he then crossed the Pacific Ocean and came back to England around the Cape of Good Hope. What was clear with him is that he tried to have good relations with the natives he discovered, when they were not hostile, with the idea in mind that the future colonists will have to work along and establish good commercial relations with them. He envisaged the necessity, later on, to convert them to the good God, the protestant God, but that was not his immediate objective. He also had good relations with ex-slave escapees and even took some under his protection on his ship. He did not envisage slavery. That was to come from the connection between free enterprise plantations in southern colonies and the desire to survive against the Indians in the puritan northern colonies that will lead to slavery, the rejection of Indians, and eventually the War of Independence, the Civil War and the Indian Wars. The book is rich in details and the author's method is good and productive as for acceptable hypotheses about the dark points of Drake's big voyage that was kept mostly secret by decision of Elizabeth.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Customer Reviews:
Book Review.......2007-05-07
Great summary of English and world history in the 1500s. Interesting eyewitness account of the early slave trade.
Average customer rating:
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Sir Francis Drake (Historic Lives)
Peter Whitfield
Manufacturer: NYU Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0814794033
Release Date: 2004-10-01 |
Book Description
An Alternate Selection of the History Book Club
”This is a book that would make Francis Drake proud.”
—Itineraries
"Whitfield, a well-regarded historian of Cartography, straightforwardly recounts Drake's adventures for readers new to the sea dog, such as the circumnavigation of 1577-80 and the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588."—Booklist
"Cartographic historian Whitfield indicates that the 19th- and 20th-century romanticizing of Sir Francis Drake is well off the mark. Though compact, this is an exciting and wholly convincing interpretation of an important British figure. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries."
—Library Journal
Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596) assured his place in history when, in his lone ship the Golden Hind, he sailed the Pacific to become the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. Drake the man, however, is an enigma and relatively little is known about his personal life. Historians today have struggled to reconcile the heroic legend with the facts, which show that Drake achieved his status almost exclusively through acts of theft, piracy, and aggression.
Drake, who championed England's Protestant queen, used courage and seamanship to gain wealth and fame, and in doing so helped establish England's maritime empire. Yet, after his Armada success, the accomplished lone privateer rarely functioned effectively as part of a larger force, and he fell from royal favor, ending his days feeling cursed.In this new biography, Peter Whitfield, a leading expert in exploration and map history, examines this dilemma to shed light on Drake the man and the legend. Illustrated throughout with original documents, maps and portraits, this biography offers an accessible and highly readable account of one of the greatest explorers of all time.
Book Description
Well before the Jamestown settlers first sighted the Chesapeake Bay or the Mayflower reached the coast of Massachusetts, the first English colony in America was established on Roanoke Island. David Stick tells the story of that fascinating period in North Carolina's past, from the first expedition sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584 to the mysterious disappearance of what has become known as the lost colony.
Included in the colorful cast of characters are the renowned Elizabethans Sir Francis Drake and Sir Richard Grenville; the Indian Manteo, who received the first Protestant baptism in the New World; and Virginia Dare, the first child born of English parents in America. Roanoke Island narrates the daily affairs as well as the perils that the colonists experienced, including their relationships with the Roanoacs, Croatoans, and the other Indian tribes. Stick shows that the Indians living in northeastern North Carolina—so often described by the colonists as savages—had actually developed very well organized social patterns.
The fate of the colonists left on Roanoke Island by John White in 1587 is a mystery that continues to haunt historians. A relief ship sent in 1590 found that the settlers had vanished. Stick makes available all of the evidence on which historians over the centuries have based their conjectures. Methodically reconstructing the facts—and exposing the hoaxes—he invites readers to draw their own conclusions concerning what happened.
Exploring the significance of that first English settlement in the New World, Stick concludes that speculation over the fate of the lost colony has overshadowed the more important fact that the Roanoke Island colonization effort helped prepare for the successful settlement of Jamestown two decades later. "Had it been otherwise," he contends, " those of us living here today might well be speaking Spanish instead of English."
The four hundredth anniversary of the exploration and settlement of what came to be called North Carolina occurred in 1984. For that occasion, America's Four Hundredth Anniversary Committee commissioned this factual and readable history.
Customer Reviews:
Job Well Done!.......2006-05-05
It is often thought that the Jamestown settlement was the beginning of English America, and in some ways, this may be correct. However, more than twenty years before Jamestown, Roanoke was established by Sir Walter Raleigh for England. In an intriguing story, David Stick narrates the accounts of the early settlers in a way that pulls us into the experiences as readers.
From the beginning of the book, Stick acknowledges the question of why England was so delayed in exploring the Americas. In his long-winded introduction, he provides a concise history of the European encounters with America which ultimately concludes in the lack of understanding in the world geography.
Based largely off of the accounts of Thomas Hariot, and later, John White, who eventually became Governor, one can see how the early English settlers interacted among themselves as well as the Indians. Mystery appears to surround the different expeditions, with the first retreating from Indians leaving three men behind. When Grenville journeys to Roanoke shortly after, one of the men is found dead while the other two's fate remains a mystery. Grenville then leaves even more men behind on the island, most of which also end up mysteriously vanishing with the exception of two who get killed by Indians. In the manner that this is written, one can see how, in some ways, there are more members to the "Lost Colony."
A possible shortcoming is the lack of connection with the "characters." One may find it quite easy to identify with John White, for instance, but men like Ferndinando, Grenville, and Lane lack personality. Admittingly, this is a difficult task because personal narratives from these men are not available. As a result, at times, it may have been easy to accidentally confuse these adventurers with the wrong voyages.
Credit must be given, however, to Stick because he took the approach of using personal narratives. Alan Taylor, author of "American Colonies," wrote a brief history of Roanoke in his book, but went out of his way to cast these early explorers in negative light. Taylor criticizes their selection of land as well as their alleged laziness that culminated in bad relations with Indians. Mistakes, obviously, were made but David Stick's method helped the reader sympathize with the difficulties of these men without pointing fingers.
Both the Spaniards and the Indians appeared to evoke fear from these English colonists. This somewhat thematic aspect plays throughout the book. However, relations with the Indians were more ambiguous and Stick shows the use of two Indians, Wanchese and Manteo, who help the English build relations with certain tribes. He then goes beyond his mild tentativeness to show that friendly Indians offered the idea of being given something to wear for the English to identify them with, which was refused. Stick has trouble understanding the logic and presents an instance of confusion following this proposal that mistakes friendly Indians for enemies.
The most outstanding feature of this book is his chapters that follow the story. Because Roanoke is notorious for the "Lost Colony," David Stick presents the readers with clues and theories about the Lost Colony ranging from enslavement by the Spanish to the possibility that Roanoke was mistaken for another island and that the descendants of this colony live there today. While he rules these two conclusions out, he provides the readers with points that three experts agreed upon but does not make any conclusion himself. As a result, the reader will be fascinated to be left to speculate about what may have become of the colonists.
A flotilla of substance.......2005-09-18
Sir Walter Raleigh landed in the Outer Banks, North Carolina, in 1584. Until 1587 there was a steady stream of shipping from England. Sir Francis Drake and Sir Richard Grenville took part. The area was named Virginia in honor of Queen Elizabeth. A colony arrived at Roanoke Island in 1587 and permanent residency seemed assured, but for the next three years efforts to provide releif for the settlement were thwarted by the war with Spain. An expedition arrived in 1590 and found everyone had disappeared. Subsequently it became known as the Lost Colony.
England made a late start in exploring and settling the New World. Irish Monks sailed north and west as far as Iceland in the 5th and 6th centuries. Norsemen probably came to North America a thousand years ago. Eric the Red established a settlement in Greenland. The exact place on the mainland of Vineland, the settlement of Lief Eriksson, has been the subject of speculation.
Eventually the attempts at colonization were given up and nearly five hundred years later Christopher Columbus discovered America. Columbus wanted to go west to be in the east to trade. He made four voyages between 1492 and 1506. Ferdinand Magellan was killed circumnavigating the globe in 1521. Hernando de Soto led an expedition on the mainland of the American continent. He landed on the west coast of Florida in 1539.
The leaders of the Raleigh expedition were given information about Roanoke and Ocracoke and other areas of the Outer Banks by the Indians Wanchese and Manteo. White, an artist, and Hariot, a scientist, reported on the Lost Colony. Hariot's contribution included navigation skills and linguistics. The missing colonists-- the palisaded settlement was deserted when the Englishmen arrived August 18, 1590-- may have intermingled with the Chesapeake Indians living near present day Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.
A note on sources, glossary, and index appear at the back of the book. The author presents an excellent survey of a half century of recent efforts to determine the fate of the inhabitants of the Lost Colony. A very comprehensive background to the undertaking by the English to settle America is also provided.
The first English colony in America.......2005-08-18
This is a history of the first English settlement in America - the Roanoke Island settlement in North Carolina, organized and sent by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584. After most of the colonists returned to England after the first year, it was years before a relief party returned; by then the settlement had become The Lost Colony. What happened? No one knows for sure, and many have expressed different opinions. Probably they simply mixed with the local Indians around Chesapeake Bay. Stick recounts what's known about the story of the Roanoke Island settlement in a straightforward fashion, but without much flair. A good introductory study.
Customer Reviews:
Terrific book!!.......2007-02-07
This book was so entertaining even I enjoyed reading it. It blended real facts with funny tidbits of the life and times of Sir Francis Drake. If your child has an explorer report to do and chooses Drake, by all means get this book!!
Book Description
From the "Prince of Storytellers," an exciting account of life on the high seas as seen through the eyes of young Ned Hearne. The brave 16th-century teen sails with Francis Drake, experiences a harsh seafaring life, visits unexplored lands; and witnesses the great naval battle between the English fleet and the Spanish Armada.
Customer Reviews:
Tea With Terroists.......2006-08-11
Extreamly awaking to the problems that exist today that should put all that read this book with an open mind and apply some effort to correct our mistakes. Cut off the supply of money to Arabian states. No more Oil purchases from Arabian controled teritory. Be willing to pay more for gas or even go to gas rationing. Develope fuel from unused crops and other waiste products...
Fuel for the imagination!!!.......2001-11-27
I read this out loud to my 11 and 8 year olds. They both LOVED it! G. A. Henty has true eloquence with words, which I enjoyed, but the kids were just drawn in by the adventure! This was our first Henty novel, but it won't be our last! What a great way to learn history.
Super Kid!.......2001-08-18
Subtitled "A Tale of the Spanish Main" this is an enjoyable book with lots of history easy to digest and learn. Ned Hearne - a brave, intelligent teen from Plymouth meets English privateer Francis Drake (not a "Sir" yet) and his adventures begin. Along with three friends (with each of whom he has an improbable, but stirring adventure) Ned takes along through the Elizabethan years and events leading up to the Spanish Armada and the subsequent fact of Britannia becoming the preeminent sea power. History can be fun!
Really cool!.......2000-06-06
This is a great book! The adventure never lets up, and the charachters set good examples of manilness, dignity, and honor. I highly recommend it! It's a wonderful book to read aloud as a family or just by yourself.
Stories for boys, or how to go to war with the right spirit.......2000-04-10
In the early 90s, I came into possession of what I took to be a very nearly complete collection (I have 75 volumes), mostly in first or other early editions, of the British writer G. A. Henty. Henty died in 1902 or thereabouts, having written his last books about the actions which took place in the war opposing English troops and Boer commandos. And that was his formula, first and foremost to record in print the historical events associated with any British military venture from the early Middle Ages onwards. The other characteristic of his writing was, that it was intended for consumption by boys and as such it was typical of a genre that was well developed in the late Victorian period. Henty's prefaces invariably start, "My Dear Boys," and he developed a sort of intimacy with his youthful audience that eventually made him something of a best selling author at the end of last century. It is interesting to note that he is still in print, or was until very recently.
Most of his books have a two-fold purpose therefore; recounting (mainly) military history and inculcating a certain notion of the standard of behaviour to be expected from a future young subaltern. No doubt, of the thousands of officers from British and colonial regiments who went to the front in 1915 and dashed themselves bravely against the German wall, a great many had had this form of early Henty training. Having read so many of them, one can scarcely recall the actual details of plots and sub-plots. Yet on the details of the history involved, there is much to learn, as Henty was a meticulous man who recorded as fully as possible (and some times too fully, it must be admitted, with respect to the endless movements of particular regiments into the line) the events he describes. He is equally good at sea as on land and has written some classics of maritime literature, particularly "Under Drake's Flag," and "Cochrane the Dauntless." So while Henty can hardly be expected to have a wide audience today, for those who find him to their taste, it must be said that the material, most of which will have to be located second hand, is not wanting.
Book Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1872 edition by Tinsley Brothers, London.
Amazon.com
Remembered in standard history texts as an adventurer who helped extend England's maritime empire to the coasts of Africa and the Americas, Francis Drake roamed the world under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth I. He enriched her coffers by attacking Spanish merchant ships in the Caribbean, raiding ports, looting churches, and taking a cut of the slave trade--the acts not of a military man, Harry Kelsey argues, but of a pirate, and of a cowardly one at that as he was given to fleeing at the first sign of danger, leaving his men behind. Even so, for his services Elizabeth awarded Drake a knighthood and a degree of immunity until he failed to appear at his post during a naval engagement against ships of the Spanish armada. He then lost the queen's favor and disappeared from history's stage. Drake has few champions today, certainly fewer than he did in Elizabethan times. Even then he was none too popular. This well-written revisionist biography explains why. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
In this lively and engaging new biography, Harry Kelsey shatters the familiar image of Sir Francis Drake. The Drake of legend was a pious, brave, and just seaman who initiated the move to make England a great naval power and whose acts of piracy against his country’s enemies earned him a knighthood for patriotism. Kelsey paints a different and far more interesting picture of Drake as an amoral privateer at least as interested in lining his pockets with Spanish booty as in forwarding the political goals of his country, a man who became a captain general of the English navy, but never waged traditional warfare with any success.
Drawing on much new evidence, Kelsey describes Drake’s early life as the son of a poor family in sixteenth-century England. He explains how Drake dabbled in piracy, gained modest success as a merchant, and then took advantage of the hostility between Spain and England to embark on a series of daring pirate raids on undefended Spanish ships and ports, preempting Spanish demands for punishment by sharing much of his booty with the Queen and her councillors. Elizabeth I liked Drake because he was a charming rogue, and she made him an integral part of her war plans against Spain and its armada, but she quickly learned not to trust him with an important command: he was unable to handle a large fleet, was suspicious almost to the point of paranoia, and had no understanding of personal loyalty. For Drake, the mark of success was to amass great wealth, preferably by taking it from someone else and the primary purpose of warfare was to afford him the opportunity to accomplish this.
Customer Reviews:
UNBRIDLED BIAS -- buy a different biography.......2005-06-19
Most professional historians at least try to feign objectivity in their treatment of historical figures. Harry Kelsey does not. The author despises Drake and makes no attempt to hide that fact. Kelsey set out to do a hatchet job and he certainly wasn't going to let history get in the way.
Although the author does a reasonable job of addressing many of the established historical events, he deliberately fails to report dozens of well documented incidents of Drake's mercy and largesse. While Drake's Spanish contemporaries were torturing or executing the Englishmen they captured, Drake repeatedly spared his captives' lives, fed and treated them well, then eventually released them unharmed. These accounts are well documented BY DRAKE'S CONTEMPORARY SPANISH ENEMIES, yet Kelsey cannot bring himself to report these incidents.
Why? Harry Kelsey loathes Drake and cannot force himself to simply objectively report the positive things that Drake's own enemies said about him.
More objective treatments of Drake include
1. "Francis Drake" by John Cummings
2. "The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake" by Samuel Bawlf
3. Passing treatment of Drake in "The Queen's Slave Trader" (biography of John Hawkins) by Nick Hazlewood
Even Kelsey's own more recent (2003) work "Sir John Hawkins -- Queen Elizabeth's Slave Trader" treats Drake (albeit incidentally) more evenhandedly than his "Sir Francis Drake: The Queen's Pirate".
Judging by the editorial ..........2000-09-20
Judging by the editorial the book gives a completely wrong picture judging actions from another time and place by modern rules.
Sir Francis Drake had very little in common with the pirate from the movies. He was more of talented gentleman of 16 century on dangerous, but profitable enterprize.
I do not remember Drake looting churches, but even if he did - one must not forget about him being protestant during major religious unrest in Europe. His attituide to his enemies was good and he wasn't bloodthirsty. His moral values were quite normal for his time. And his military prowess definitely was higher than normal.
His performance during engagement with Spanish Armada was good as well (worth to mention, that, unlike of admiral Hogwart - commander of the English fleet, Drake owned some ships of English fleet). The book "Defeat of Spanish Armada" by Garrett Mattingly gives very accurate account on that issue.
He never lost Queen's favor. He rather lost Queen's admiration, because results of his last expeditions were less spectacular, but he died vice-admiral commanding his fleet.
I have unplesant feeling that the book is just one of those "detroning" biographies, which use the standard approach "all great people are just good liars" and aimed to entertain readers with no background in the area. Pity, because writing biography of Drake give unique possibility to make reader understand 16 century through picture of this great military leader.
Bring on the Dogs of War!.......1999-01-07
For afficionados of Drake, Elizabethan England, or nautical history, this is a first rate read! The scholarship is thorough and well documented without leaving the prose too dry. Author Kelsey exegetically strips the gloss which has been after-added to most accounts of Drake's life (my brother, who is a nautical archaeologist, found it professionally worthwhile). Unfortunately, Kelsey's apparent bias against Drake's commercial focus prevents a discussion of Drake's larger role as an economic multiplier in the Elizabethan fiscus. The cash brought in by Drake's expeditions and similar ilk were probably critical in enabling the crown to finance the struggle against the Spaniards. Still, all in all, highly recommended.
Drake is the greatest pirate of all times!.......1998-10-16
I love the story of Sir Francis Drake and his adventures in the Spanish Main and was eager at this chance at such a thourouh telling of his story.
the captains and the kings depart!.......1998-09-20
Hee - anybody who reads biography as a genre has a barely-suppressed sweet tooth for Soviet-style icon-destruction, and this big book satisfies that craving in spades! Drake was looooong overdue for his de-Errol Flynnification, but it's a rare and wonderful thing when the vitriol is under tight control and matched with fine research and writing. This book will draw you in and keep you in - it's worth the price and the time involved.
Customer Reviews:
not for kids who like history.......2000-12-24
My daughters love biographies, especially those done by Diane Stanley. This is not really a biography. It has some historical information in it, but really it is just some facts strung together in an annoying rhyme. My oldest (7) thought the illustrations were absurd. The figures look like they are being viewed in a carnival mirror, wide and short with very large heads. Sir Francis Drake is an interesting and controversial character in history and deserves a better telling of his story.
Another excellent book -.......2000-11-21
Like all of the Gerard books I have seen, these one is excellent reading. The poetry of the text is well paced and engaging, and makes reading aloud easy and entertaining. The illustrations remain superb. This book is more factually based, telling Drake's life story in vignettes that are imaginative but accurate. The book succeeds on many levels - my son loves to hear it, and I love to read it!
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