Great Explorers
2 total works
Sir Francis Drake rose from humble beginnings on an English farm to become one of the country's most widely acclaimed heroes. As a result of his early exploits at what amounted to piracy in the Caribbean, he acquired great wealth and fame. He became a confidant of Queen Elizabeth I, a terror to the king of Spain, and an admiral in the navy that defeated the mighty Spanish Armada. As an explorer, Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world - the second ever to do so after Magellan - and his voyages uncovered much about the western coast of the Americas, the Pacific Northwest, the Pacific Ocean, and Cape Horn. Read in ""Sir Francis Drake"" how this man's career opened the way for more exploration by the English and was part of the foundation of British naval power.
James Cook, son of a farm laborer and onetime shopkeeper's apprentice, became one of England's greatest explorers. After learning his trade as a seafarer in the Royal Navy, he commanded three epic voyages that took him around the world twice and from the Antarctic to the Arctic. His many discoveries included the Great Barrier Reef of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. His exploration of the South Pacific added immeasurably to the geography of that region, and his rigorous insistence on a diet intended to prevent diseases like scurvy served as a model for generations of captains. On his final voyage, Cook was stabbed to death during the season of war in Hawaii. In ""Captain James Cook"", learn how this daring explorer charted far-flung regions of the globe.