Career

Collecting localities

Collections

Literature

Biographical data

 

Drake, Sir Francis

 

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 1: Cyclopaedia of collectors)

 

Born: c. 1541 or ‘45, near Tavistock, Devonshire, England. 

Died: 1596, o/b his ship near the town of Nombre de Dios, West Indies

 

career:

In his youth apprenticed on a vessel, finally admiral. In 1577 he started for a voyage into the South Seas through the Straits of Magellan at the expense of Queen Elizabeth (see below). In 1581 appointed Mayor of Plymouth; in 1585 again to sea, when the hostilities with Spain had commenced; in 1588 vice-admiral.

 

Collecting localities:

Voyage in the ‘Pelican’ etc., 1577-80.1 Sailing from Plymouth (Dec. 13, 1577); Isl. Mogadore (coast of Barbary), Cape Blanco, Isl. Maya, Isl. Brava, River de la Plata, Bay of Seals (Seal Bay), Port San Julian, Terra del Fuego (discovery), Isl. Mocha, Valparaiso, Coquimbo, Tarapaca, Arica, Callao, Isl. Canno, Guatulco, W. coast of N. America, Isls of St James, Isls of Thieves; Philippines, Mindanao (Oct. 21, 1579), sailing again on the 22nd; Moluccas, Ternate (Nov. 3-8); anchoring at small island near E. Celebes (Crab Isl. of the English) (Nov. 14-Dec. 11); port on S. side of Java (March 12-25, 1580); Cape of Good Hope; Sierra Leone; Plymouth (Sept. 26).

 

collections:

Rumphius in his ‘Herbarium Amboinense’ (I, p. 183) mentions the fact (cited from Carol. Clusius lib. 2 Exot. Cap. 27) that ‘Fructus Beretinus’ (= Gnetum gnemon L.) was brought to Europe in 1580 with the celebrated voyage round the world of Fr. Drake. The specimen was collected in Beretina Island in the Philippines, probably in 1579. Drake presented sundry natural history objects to Clusius.2

 

literature:

(1) cf. ‘Voyage of Francis Drake’ in J. Burney, A chronological history of discovery in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean, 1, 1803, p. 304-369.

(2) cf. Meyen, Geschichte der Botanik, 4, 1857, p. 352.

 

biographical data:

Encyclop. Britan.; in ‘Les explorateurs célèbres’ (Genève/Paris 1947) p. 64-66 + portr.