Sir Francis Drake's Statue, Plymouth

The bronze statue of Sir Francis Drake, overlooking the Hoe, pays homage to one of the most celebrated and respected seamen of his time, Captain Francis Drake, who was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. The 10-foot tall monument was created by sculptor Joseph Edgar Boehm, and was unveiled on February 14th, 1884 in the presence of Lady Fuller Drake, a distant relative of the famous marine explorer.

In 1577, Drake was secretly commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I to set off on an expedition against the Spanish colonies on the American Pacific coast. He sailed up the west coast of South America, plundering Spanish ports along the way, and arrived back in England in 1580 with a rich cargo of spices and Spanish treasure. In 1581, Elizabeth knighted Drake in recognition of his achievement. That same year he became Mayor of Plymouth, and went on to become a member of parliament.

Drake is also celebrated for his central role in the victorious battle against the invading Spanish Armada. Popular legend has it that he was playing bowls on Plymouth Hoe, on 20th July 1588, when the first news of sightings of the approaching Armada came in. Thereupon Drake ostensibly continued the game, a cool reaction fabled as an act of true English heroism. In reality, however, Drake and his fellow captains probably knew full well that the wind and tide conditions at that particular moment precluded the English Fleet from putting to sea immediately. When Drake eventually did go out to sea, he defeated the Spanish Armada and thus added greatly to his fame.

In 1979, on the 400th Anniversary of Drake's voyage around the world, the Sir Francis Drake Commission of California presented the city of Plymouth with a plaque commemorating his coming ashore in Marin Country, California in June 1579. The plaque has since been added to the base of the statue.

Years on, the area around the statue has changed much as the public sentiment. Lately, a petition calling on local authorities to remove Sir Francis Drake's statues both in Tavistock (there's another identical statue in Tavistock, Devon, where Drake was born at Crowndale Farm in 1540) and on Plymouth Hoe for his involvement in the British slave trade.