2 comments about Drake: For God, Queen, and Plunder (Military Profiles).

1. Drake: For God, Queen, And Plunder by military historian Wade G. Dudley (Visiting Assistant Professor, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina) is a fascinating, informed and informative, military and historical biography of Sir Francis Drake, the famous high seas plunderer of fifteenth century England, who was fueled by hatred of Catholic Spain and his devotion to his Protestant queen Elizabeth I. Highly recommended reading, Drake is a very carefully researched and engagingly told account with an especial focus upon Drake's nautical and military tactics.



2. When I found out that Brassey's Military Profiles series was doing an assessment of Francis Drake, I was pleased that this complex and almost legendary figure was going to be summed up in a handy snapshot reference work. At 89 pages of text, this endeavor was quite a challenge. Dudley Wade has managed to include all the controversies and episodes while providing a surprisingly full and fair an appraisal in such a concise book.
   
   My introduction to Drake was a reading of Julian Corbett's one volume 1912 biography (rather than his more scholarly but ponderous 1899 two volume treatment incorporating the dawn of the British Navy). While a handy summary of Drake's career, in just over 200 pages, it was written for a British audience and assumed some background knowledge of the personalities, parties and political-religious quarrels both within England and among its European (principally Spanish) antagonists. Plus Corbett's Edwardian British chauvinism and dated idiom is a bit off-putting. I've since read works on the English "sea dogs" and renaissance era piracy and seafaring, and was looking for a good, brief overview of Drake employing modern (i.e. late 20th century) research.
   
   Chapter 1, Prelude (pp. 3-13). This is a valuable chapter setting the exploits of Drake in total context. This includes the development of seafaring/navigation, maritime trade and conquest, the vagaries and rivalries of the search for routes to the sources of spices (and later, more fortuitously precious metals and gems) in the East, and the rise of Protestant-Catholic (not always so neatly demarcated) antagonism, later focused on the struggle between Protestant England and Caotholic Spain and their allies, pawns, dupes and double-agents. All this is set into English court and religious history - often identical-and the various political intrigues surrounding Elizabeth I.
   
   Chapter 2, Young Man Drake (pp. 15-28). Born of the lesser gentry (economically akin to the present day lower middle class) Drake's father, a tailor by trade, became a preacher in the new Church of England and thus a target for a Catholic backlash against Edward VI's promulgation of a common prayer book. Fleeing local persecution the family wound up living in a ship's hulk converted to a home near Plymouth where young Drake was exposed to seafarers of the port as his father received a very modest stipend to preach the new gospel to them. Here Dudley speculates on the exposure of the boy to the nuts and bolts, or knots and splices, of practical seamanship, while his father imbued him with guiding principles of his Protestant faith and a concomitant hatred of Catholicism - though not of Catholics as individuals. The brief return of the pro-Catholic "Bloody Mary" to the throne marked another stage in the young Drake's career, wherein for his son's safety, his father agreed that his eldest son should leave home at the age of 13. Dudley notes two theories about his schooling in seamanship at this point. One, that generally prevalent in early histories and most popular accounts is that Drake became apprenticed to a coastal merchant, who upon his death, bequeathed Drake his vessel. The alternate account, one seemingly favored by Dudley, is that Drake was "fostered" into the home of a prosperous relative, William Hawkins of Plymouth. Here, Drake would have similarly gained considerable practical knowledge of seamanship while aboard the family's several 50-ton vessels, while also continuing a formal education in the mathematical and navigational skills. Also, here is where the young Drake likely acquired his familiarity with the international diplomatic scene as well as the political savvy to hold his own among haughty gentry. The Hawkins family privateering tradition also imbued Drake with this entrepreneurial and self-directed attitude towards armed adventures. Plus he gained valuable experience in the tricky three-way slaves for gold and produce trade, England-African West Coast - Spanish Caribbean, that danced the fine line between sticking it to the Spaniards and overkill which would get Elizabeth in hot water over her "plausible deniability" sponsorship. Here, in a few close-run escapades, Drake learned the value of Protestant allies and how being charitable to Catholic prisoners and victims could also reap benefits. Plus he acquired his outstanding proficiency in seamanship, both in uncharted shoals and in the vast deep blue, and how to stomach dire adversity with a clear head and cool nerves. The treacherous Spanish attack at San Juan de Ulua, off the coast of Mexico led to some vague charge that Drake deserted the expedition, but his reputation for excellent seamanship was affirmed despite the financial losses. Most importantly, it spurred him to seek revenge on the haughty overbearing Catholic rulers of Spain.
   
   Chapter 3, To the Spanish Main and Beyond (pp. 29-47)continues the saga of the imperfectly "sponsored" freebooting raids on Spanish maritime treasure and communications. It provides a handy summary of Drake's circumnavigation -- a covert operation that forever cemented his place (and that of his diminutive galleon the Golden Hind) in history. Drake's summary trial and execution of a dissident captain, the courtier Thomas Doughty, is handled deftly. Interestingly, Dudley suggests that this incident underlies Drake's shipboard piety, as a guilty conscience plagued him.
   
   Chapter 4, the War of the Armada (pp 49-71)j is a very good summary of the Armada campaign and Drake's role. Dudley's criticism of Drake's apparent insubordination in failing to keep formation has to be seen in light of the epoch's rather lax concept of "command and control" and discipline among adventurous and independent-minded sea rovers.
   
   Chapter 5, The Final Raids (pp. 73-83)shows Drake's waning powers of judgment and self-confidence.
   
   Chapter 6, Who Was Francis Drake (pp 85-89) neatly reviews the controversies and possible explanations for Drake's checkered career as an adventurer, commander, local politician and mid-level aristocrat who was never accepted by the "landed gentry" who haunted the court of Elizabeth I at a time when her power abroad depended on the likes of Hawkins, Drake, et. al. -- men who were fanatically loyal to Queen Bess's England but who would not brook any interference from petty politicians, or a Queen's conservatism inspired by their court intrigues.

2 comments about Climb To Glory: The Adventures of Bill Hackett.

1. Even though I'm not a mountain climber, I have a great appreciation of them. Bill Hackett packed a lot of living into one lifetime while changing the world of mountaineering. The authors do an amazing job of combining Bill's diaries, interviews and a plethora of references. A very entertaining read. I have never known someone to summit a hotel before.



2. Even though I'm not a climber, I have a great appreciation of the mountains. Bill Hackett was a man that packed a lot of life into his given time. The authors did a great job of sifting through a myriad of diaries, interviews and references to select events to help you get a sense of who Mr. Hackett was. Not only did he make mountaineering history, but had an edge that fully embraced being alive. I have also never known anyone who summitted a hotel (from the exterior). A very entertaining read.

No comments about Arctic Exodus: The Last Great Trail Drive.

No comments about NIGHT WALK.

No comments about Roberta Bondar: The Exceptional Achievements of Canada's First Woman Astronaut (Amazing Stories).

No comments about Indians and pioneers: An historical reader for the young (Historical series).

No comments about The Life and Career of Sir Henry M. Stanley: The African Explorer.

No comments about Christopher Columbus: A Concise Biography (Pocket Biographies).

No comments about Daniel Boone, wilderness scout: The life story and true adventures of the great hunter Long Knife who first blazed the Wilderness Trail through the Indian's country to Kentucky.

1 comments about Oklahoma Pioneer!: Horace Greeley Teeman Hall.

1. Oklahoma Pioneer Review
   011707
   
   Being a Wesley Hall fan I could not pass this one. A tale of proud
   accomplishments in spite of strife, this is a story of doing it the hard way!
   Most new immigrants going west found that to be their path in the early days
   of the Oklahoma territory. This book is a necessary link in the continuing
   biogrpahical odyssey of Wesley E Hall.