On December 13, 1577, five small wooden ships slipped out of the English port of Plymouth on a secret mission for Queen Elizabeth I. Their captain was a 37-year-old sailor named Francis Drake, known for being a bold raider of Spanish treasure ships. Officially, Drake was sailing on a trading voyage. Secretly, Elizabeth had given him a different job - sail to the far side of the world, raid Spanish gold, and find new lands for England.
The journey turned into one of the wildest sea adventures ever. Drake's flagship, the Pelican (later renamed the Golden Hind), battled storms around the southern tip of South America that scattered his fleet. He raided Spanish ports along the coast of Chile and Peru, capturing a treasure ship called the Cacafuego packed with so much silver it took six days to move it all into Drake's hold. He sailed up the California coast, claimed it for England, and called it New Albion. Then he turned west across the entire Pacific Ocean.
Almost three years later, on September 26, 1580, Drake sailed back into Plymouth with only one ship and 56 of his original 164 men, but his hold was bursting with treasure. He had become the first English captain - and only the second person ever, after Magellan's crew - to sail all the way around the globe. Queen Elizabeth boarded the Golden Hind, tapped him on the shoulder with a sword, and made him Sir Francis Drake. A trip that started with five small ships ended by changing the map of the world.
