Drake's famous ship - the Golden Hind galleon
If you briefly characterize this person, then his fate is very unusual. In his youth, he became a ship captain, and later a successful sea pirate. Then he became a navigator and made the second circumnavigation of the world after Ferdinand Magellan. And after all this, he was promoted to admiral and defeated the invincible Spanish armada. We are talking about the legendary Francis Drake, an English navigator and vice admiral.
Admiral Francis Drake
Francis Drake was born in England in the village of Tavistock, Devonshire in the family of a farmer in 1540. From childhood, the boy dreamed of long-distance sea voyages and fame. Francis began the road to his dreams at the age of 13, having hired a cabin boy. The young man turned out to be a smart sailor and soon he became a senior assistant to the captain. Later, when Francis was 18 years old, he bought a small barque, on which he began to transport various cargoes. But ordinary sea transportation did not bring much wealth, which cannot be said about piracy and the slave trade. They gave more profit, and therefore, in 1567, Francis Drake, as a ship commander in the flotilla of his distant relative John Hawkins, set off on a long voyage to Africa for slaves and from there to the West Indies, where sailors traded in robbery and capture of Spanish ships. During this voyage, the young navigator gained vast experience in plundering and attacking merchant ships of the Spanish crown. Returning to England, they immediately started talking about him as a successful captain.
Soon, in November 1577, Francis Drake went on a ship from the port of Plymouth and headed an expedition to the Pacific Ocean to the shores of America, the goal was to bring new lands under the English crown and also to seize Spanish ships and their valuable cargo. This time there were already five ships under Drake's command. Drake ship called "Pelican" was armed with 18 guns and had three masts. In terms of sailing armament, a hundred-ton ship belonged to a galleon. With a relatively small size, Drake's ship had good seaworthiness. Historians say that even Queen Elizabeth herself blessed these ships and presented memorable gifts.
The sea trip started well. By the end of January 1578, Drake's ships arrived on the coast of Morocco, where the British captured the city of Mogadar. received as a reward a large number of various valuable goods, sea pirates headed for the shores of America, where they engaged in robbery. During this, several of Drake's ships were in mutiny. Some sailors decided to take up piracy themselves. However, the rebellion was put down. Leaving the two most lean ships, and re-forming the team, Francis Drake went to the Strait of Magellan. Having successfully passed the strait, the sailboats entered the open ocean, where they immediately fell into a strong storm. Drake's scattered ships were no longer able to gather in a squadron. One ship crashed against the rocks, another was dragged into the strait by the current, and its captain decided to return to England on his own. And Drake's ship, which by that time had received a new name for its excellent seaworthiness, was carried far to the south.
Drake's ship the Golden Doe
Galleons as a type of vessel originated in the 17th century in Spain, when clumsy carracks and small caravels were no longer suitable for long-distance sea voyages. The English galleon, which was Drake's ship, was more spacious and had more powerful weapons. The stern superstructures were high, but more elegant due to the shape, which was very narrowed towards the top. Often, exits to open galleries were made from the aft rooms. The transom, as a rule, was created straight. The stern of the galleons often had luxurious decoration in the form of a gilded ornament. The stem also had its own decorations. The galleon's rigging consisted of two rows of straight sails on the first two matches and a large latin sail on the mizzen mast. On the bowsprit, as a rule, a straight sail called a blind was installed. For the first time, ships like Drake had gun decks below the main deck. The hull of the ship was somewhat narrower than that of its predecessor, the karakki, and the contours of the ship were smoother, which contributed to improved maneuverability and increased speed.
Drake ship Pelican was built at the Alburgh shipyard, and both weapons (sailing and artillery) were installed in his hometown of Plymouth. The sailing ship had a length of 21.3 m, a width of 5.8 m, a draft of 2.5 m and a displacement of 150 tons. Before long sea voyages, Drake's ship took on the coloring of the Spanish galleon, consisting of an ornament of red and yellow diamonds. Originally there was a drawing of a pelican at the stern of the ship, but after the renaming, a figure of a fallow deer appeared on the bow, completely cast in gold.
But back to the great geographical discoveries of Francis Drake. So, having successfully passed the Strait of Magellan, Drake's ship moved south. Without realizing it, he made an important discovery. It turned out that Tierra del Fuego is not at all a ledge of the famous Southern continent, but only a large island, behind which the open ocean continues. Subsequently, this strait between Antarctica and South America was named after him.
Drake's ship then headed north, plundering and capturing coastal towns along the way. A particularly successful "treasure" was waiting for the English corsairs in Valparaiso. In this port, the robbers attacked the one in the harbor, loaded with gold and the rarest goods. But the most important thing on the Spanish ship was an unknown sea chart with a description of the western coast of North America.
Drake not only plundered the Spanish colonies, he went along the coast of America much north of the Spaniards. In mid-June Drake's ship moored ashore for repairs and resupply. And in the meantime, he decided to explore the area where the city of San Francisco is now located, declaring it the possession of the English queen, and called it New Albion.
The journey along the western coast of America proved to be very successful. When Drake's ship was overloaded with a lot of gold and jewels, the captain considered returning to his homeland. However, he did not dare to proceed through the Strait of Magellan, realizing the presence of Spanish ships there. Then Drake decided to go on an unknown journey through the Southern Ocean and the weather favored him in this. Soon Drake's ship reached the Marianas. After standing for repairs for several days in the Indonesian Celebes, the captain continued sailing.
On September 26, 1580, Drake and his ship arrived safely at the port of Plymouth. Here he was received with honors. Even Queen Elizabeth herself came to the ship and knighted the fearless navigator right there. And this award was well-deserved, because the corsair brought "booty", which was several times higher than the annual income of the British treasury.
In addition to the title of Francis Drake, he was appointed mayor of Plymouth, became the inspector of the royal commission, which conducted regular inspections of the ships of the British navy. And in 1584 he was elected an honorary member of the House of Commons.
Between 1585 and 1586, Sir Francis Drake again commanded an armed British fleet against the Spanish colonies in the West Indies. It was thanks to the prompt and skillful actions of Drake that the entry into the sea of the Spanish fleet of King Philip II was postponed for a year. And in 1588, he put his heavy hand to the final defeat of the invincible Spanish armada. Unfortunately, this was the end of his fame.
Francis Drake attempted a raid on Lisbon in 1589, but it was not very successful - the corsairs limited themselves to ruining the surrounding area and merchant ships. In addition, it cost Drake the favor and favor of the queen. After all, the royal treasury was a little empty, and Elizabeth did not treat such matters in the best way. Most likely, Lady Fortune left Drake and the next sea voyage to San Juan near the Canary Islands became fatal for him. The English corsairs failed to capture the city, but Drake ships were able to sink only a few Spanish galleons, and were forced to leave. In addition, a disease spread among the team, which did not bypass the admiral. Drake was fatally ill with tropical fever. On the morning of January 28, 1996, Sir Francis Drake passed away. According to maritime tradition, his body was lowered into the sea (like a true sailor), and the remnants of the squadron, led by Thomas Baskerville, returned to Plymouth without their commander.
In England, the name of Francis Drake is highly revered. A monument was erected in Plymouth in honor of the admiral. And in 1973, a group of enthusiasts built a replica of Drake's ship "Golden Doe" and repeated the glorious route of the great navigator. Now the ship is in London and is used as a museum ship.
Drake ship replica
English galleon "Golden Hind"
monument to Francis Drake in Plymouth
Francis Drake
was born on a farm in Crowndale, Devonshire. In 1540. The Drake family leased the land from Sir John Russell, later Earl of Bedford. The Drake family, despite the great difference in social status, was closely connected with the Russell family. John Russell's eldest son, Francis, was the godfather of Edmund Drake's son, who was named after him.
When the Peasants' Revolt began in 1549, Edmund Drake, an ardent Protestant, was forced to flee Crowndale for Plymouth. There Edmund Drake got a job as a priest on a ship. The ship became the home of Francis, and 11 of his brothers and sisters. Francis, apparently, was no more than ten years old when his father assigned him to a merchant ship as a cabin boy, which made voyages to the Dutch and French ports.
In 1561, the owner of the ship on which Francis sailed died.
bequeathed to him his ship. So at the age of 16, Francis became the captain and owner of a small barque.
When Francis learned of Hawkins' new expedition to the Caribbean, he did not hesitate to offer his services. Francis' position on the expedition is not known. It is clear that he was neither the captain nor the owner of any of the ships involved in it. However, the expedition ended unsuccessfully, the attacks of the English pirates were repelled by the Spanish colonists. Four of the five English ships were captured by the Spanish. Drake brought the fifth ship back to England.
In the middle of the XVI century. on the Spanish Atlantic routes, English pirates began to show great activity. Like pirates of other nationalities, they either hunted Spanish ships loaded with precious metals, or smuggled Negro slaves with Spanish planters in the "Western Indies". The Lesser Antilles became the main pirate bases; individual islands constantly changed hands, from pirates of one nationality to another.
Francis Drake managed to transfer the fight from the Antilles
to the shores of Spain itself and then deliver a series of crushing blows to it off the Pacific coast of America. This pirate, in the words of his contemporary, the Spanish Viceroy of Peru,
"opened the way to the Pacific Ocean for all heretics - Huguenots, Calvinists, Lutherans and other robbers ...".
The "Iron Pirate", as he was later called, was a domineering and tough man, with a rabid character, extremely suspicious and superstitious even for his age. As a pirate, he did not act at his own risk. He was only the "executor" of a large "shared company", one of the shareholders of which was the English Queen Elizabeth herself. She equipped the ships at her own expense, shared booty with the pirates, and took the lion's share of the profits from the "enterprise".
Elizabeth, Queen of England Four years later, Drake independently raided the Isthmus of Panama, defeated a caravan that was moving with precious metals from Peru, and safely returned to England on captured brand new Spanish ships.
In 1577 Francis Drake embarked on the most important of his undertakings,
which, unexpectedly for him, ended with the first English (second after Magellan) circumnavigation of the world. The main goal of the pirate was to attack the Pacific coast of Spanish America.
Drake assumed to return to England in a roundabout way - rounding America from the north, for which he hoped to use the Northwest Passage, which Martin Frobisher had just “discovered”. Meanwhile the Spaniards, taught by bitter experience recent years, expected English pirates on the approaches to caribbean and sent a strong fleet there.
Queen Elizabeth
and some English nobles this time also supported the enterprise with their own funds. They only demanded that the pirate keep their names secret, afraid of being compromised in a suspicious case if it ended in failure.
Drake equipped four ships with a capacity of 90 - 100 tons, not counting the pinnace. In April 1578, the pirates approached the coast of South America in the La Plata region and began to slowly move south. At the end of June, i.e. in the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere, they stopped in the same bay of San Julian, where Magellan wintered and where he crushed the rebellion and executed the leaders of the conspirators. It was here that Drake, as if imitating the great Portuguese, accused one officer of a conspiracy and executed him.
August 20, 1578 Drake entered the Strait of Magellan. He passed it very quickly, in just 20 days, but in the Pacific Ocean the flotilla was met by a fierce storm.
Of the entire flotilla, only one ship remained - the Pelican,
which Drake renamed the "Golden Hind".
The motives that prompted Drake to take such a step are not known for certain, but the fact remains: during the first trip, the Pelican was renamed the Golden Doe (Golden Hind). It is assumed that this was done by Drake in honor of one of his patrons, the Lord Chancellor Christopher Hutton, whose noble coat of arms featured a doe. Drake also borrowed Hutton's family motto, "Cassis Tutis Sima Virtus" (loosely translated from Latin, "Courage is the best defence"). It was under the name of the "Golden Doe" that this ship entered the world history of maritime glory.
Galleon "Pelican" ("Pelican")
She was launched in 1576 at the shipyard in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, then towed to Plymouth, Devon, where she was equipped with sailing weapons and artillery. The galleon was three-masted, with five decks. Estimated overall length of the ship's hull is 70 feet (21.3 m), beam 19 feet (5.8 m) and draft at the waterline 9 feet (2.7 m). The displacement of the ship was 150 tons. The artillery armament of the ship is not known for certain, it is assumed that it consisted of 18-22 guns of various calibers.
The storm brought him far to the south, and Drake was convinced that the open sea extended beyond Tierra del Fuego. Therefore, on modern maps, a wide strait separating the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego from Antarctica is named after Drake.
Having made a forced sortie to the south, Drake, as soon as the storm subsided, headed north and went to the Chilean coast. He made a daring raid along the entire Pacific coast, sunk many Spanish ships, and successively devastated the most important harbors on the Chilean, Peruvian and Mexican coasts. The Golden Doe crossed the Pacific Ocean, went to the Philippines and the Moluccas and, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, returned to England in September 1580. It was the second in the history of navigation trip around the world.
Now, neither the ships of the Peruvian flotillas, nor the Philippine galleons, which delivered silks and spices from the Far East to Acapulco, were safe from English pirates.
Drake Pirate Raid
opened sea routes for English ships, previously known only to the Spaniards and the Portuguese, and at the same time sharply worsened Anglo-Spanish relations. The Spanish envoy demanded an exemplary punishment of the pirate and the return of the loot, which was estimated at a huge amount. But the Queen of England had no intention of giving up such booty. She showered favors on Drake and made him a baronet; she accepted precious gifts from him and personally "made happy with her presence" a brilliant banquet arranged on a pirate ship. Elizabeth ordered the Spanish envoy to answer that all valuables would be stored in the royal treasury until settlements were made between England and Spain on mutual claims: after all, the Spaniards also robbed and drowned English ships and often confiscated goods from English merchants in their European possessions "heretics".
Here are the main milestones in the glorious path of this ship:
1578, June 20: on suspicion of mutiny on the ship executed Thomas Dorothy, and the ship itself was renamed the Golden Doe.
1578, December 5: raid on Valparaiso. Capture of a Spanish ship with a cargo of gold and wine.
1579, March 1: capture of the Spanish galleon "Kakafuego", carrying gold and jewelry
1579, June 1: The 48th parallel north latitude was reached, the open coast was named "New Albion" and declared the property of England.
1579, July 23: The Golden Doe left the coast of New Albion and headed for the Mariana Islands.
1579 November 3: the ship reached the Molluk Islands. Trade relations were established with the local sultan, 6 tons of spices (cloves) were purchased
1580 January 9: The Golden Doe ran aground on a small reef. The ship was saved, but in order to pull it aground, it was necessary to lighten it by throwing 8 guns and 3 tons of spices overboard. In the end, the wind changed and the ship was pulled aground.
1580, March 26: The Golden Doe reached the island of Java, circled it and headed for the Cape of Good Hope.
1581 April 4: aboard the Golden Hind, Francis Drake was knighted by the Queen of England Elizabeth I.
After that, the ship was towed to dry dock for a public visit, where it stood for about 10 years, completely becoming unusable.
Sir Francis Drake(Eng. Francis Drake; c. 1540 - January 28, 1596) - English navigator, slave trader, prominent political figure of the era of Elizabeth I, a successful pirate, the second after having made a round-the-world trip, vice-admiral, reputed to be a thunderstorm of the seas.
First Englishman to circumnavigate the world (1577-1580).
Childhood and youth
The future "Iron Pirate" of Queen Elizabeth, the first English navigator around the world, was supposedly born in 1540 in the English town of Crowndale, Devonshire.
Francis became the first child in a farmer's family. When 11 more children were born one after another, the father, Edmund Drake, became a rural preacher to feed a large family. In 1549, the family, having leased their land, moved to the south-east of England, to the county of Kent (eng. Kent). This move had a huge impact on the fate of the boy. At the age of 13, Francis, who from childhood dreamed of long-distance sea voyages, fame and fortune, became a cabin boy on his uncle's merchant ship (barque), who fell in love with the hardworking, persistent and prudent young man so much that he bequeathed the ship after his death to his nephew. Thus, after the death of his uncle at the age of 16, Francis became the full captain of his own ship.
Life full of adventure
In 1567, Drake set out on his first serious voyage to the West Indies, commanding a ship on a slave trading expedition of his relative, Sir John Hawkins. During this expedition, near the Gulf of Mexico, the British ships were attacked by the Spaniards, and most of the ships were sunk. Only two sailboats survived - Drake and Hawkins. The British demanded from the Spanish king that he pay them for the destroyed ships. The king, of course, refused, then Drake "declared war" on the Spanish crown.
In 1572, the navigator went on his own repeated campaign to the Spanish possessions in the West Indies, as a result of which he captured the city of Nombre de Dios (Spanish: Nombre de Dios), then several ships near the harbor near the Venezuelan city (Spanish. Cartagena).
During this expedition, an English corsair attacked in the area of the Isthmus of Panama on a Spanish squadron heading from Panama to Nombre de Dios, called the "Silver Caravan", in the holds of which there were approx. 30 tons of silver. August 9, 1573 Drake returned to Plymouth (Eng. Plymouth) a rich man, fanned by the glory of a successful corsair, "thunderstorm of the seas."
November 15, 1577 the English Queen Elizabeth I ordered her faithful privateer to go on an expedition to the Pacific coast of America. On December 13, 1577, Francis Drake on the flagship Pelican (Pelican) with a displacement of 100 tons left Plymouth on his most famous campaign at the head of a flotilla consisting of 4 large ones (Elizabeth, Sea Gold, Swan, "Christopher") ships and 2 small auxiliary vessels. By that time, he was already surrounded by the halo of glory of the "iron pirate", an experienced navigator and a talented naval tactician.
The official purpose of the voyage was to discover new lands, however, in fact, Drake was supposed to rob Spanish ships, replenishing the treasury of England with Spanish gold.
Francis went south to (Spanish: Estrecho de Magallanes), which the squadron passed successfully, but at the exit from it fell into a fierce storm, scattering the ships of the squadron. One ship crashed against the rocks, another was thrown back into the strait, and its captain decided to return to England.
The flagship "Pelican", the only one of all the ships "made its way" to the Pacific Ocean, where it was renamed the "Golden Doe" (Eng. Golden Hind) for its excellent seaworthiness. After a storm, he anchored among the previously unknown islands, calling them "Elizabeth".
Involuntarily, Drake made an important geographical discovery: it turned out that (Spanish: Tierra del Fuego) is not part of the unknown southern mainland, but only a large island, beyond which the open sea continues. Subsequently, the wide one between Antarctica and Tierra del Fuego was named after him.
His further journey consisted of robberies off the coast and, for which the Viceroy of Peru sent 2 ships to capture the pirate. He escaped the chase to the northwest, robbing jeweled ships and capturing prisoners along the way. It is impossible to establish the exact number of ships that became victims of the pirate today, but it is known that the booty was fabulous. A particularly large jackpot was waiting for the “sea wolf” in (Spanish: Valparaiso) - the pirates seized a ship that was in the harbor, loaded with gold and expensive goods, and a large supply of golden sand was stored in the city. But the main thing is that on the Spanish ship there were secret nautical charts with detailed description western coast of South America.
The Spanish cities and settlements on the coast did not expect the British to attack and were not ready for defense. Moving along the coast, the pirates captured city after city, filling the holds with gold. Not far from the Isthmus of Panama, they managed to board the large Spanish ship "Carafuego", which turned out to be more than 1.6 tons of gold and great amount bars of silver. In the Mexican harbor of Acapulco (Spanish Acapulco), Drake captured a galleon loaded with spices and Chinese silk.
The privateer passed along the South American Pacific coast to the north, and then explored the coast far north of the Spanish colonies, approximately to modern Vancouver (eng. Vancouver; a city on the west coast of Canada). On June 17, 1579, the ship landed on an unknown shore, presumably in the San Francisco area (eng. San Francisco), and according to another version, in modern Oregon (eng. Oregon). Pirate declared these lands English proficiency, calling them "New Albion" (Eng. New Albion).
Map of the movements of the Drake flotilla (1572-1580)
Then he crossed the Pacific Ocean and went to Mariana Islands(Eng. Mariana Islands). After repairing the ship and replenishing provisions, he headed for the Cape of Good Hope, then, bypassing Africa from the south, on September 26, 1580 moored at Plymouth, completing the 2nd circumnavigation of the world after Magellan in 2 year 10 months and 11 days. At home, the pirate was greeted as a national hero, he was awarded an honorary knighthood by the Queen.
From the circumnavigation of the world, Drake brought to England not only treasures worth a huge amount of 600 thousand pounds sterling (this was 2 times the size of the annual income of the kingdom), but also potato tubers - descendants are especially grateful to him for this.
It should be mentioned that his campaign caused a major international scandal, since there was no official state of war during this period between Spain and England. The Spanish king even demanded that the Queen of England punish Drake for piracy, compensate for material damage and apologize. Of course, Elizabeth was not going to punish anyone or compensate for the damage, on the contrary, from now on, Francis Drake rested on his laurels. He was awarded the post of mayor of Plymouth, became an inspector of the naval Royal Commission, which controlled the state of the fleet, and in 1584 was elected a member of the House of Commons of the British Parliament. Since the knighthood required to have his own castle, Sir Francis bought an estate in Buckland (Eng. Buckland Abbey, Devon).
However, the famous adventurer was clearly burdened by land life. When in the mid 80's. relations between the two countries escalated, Drake offered his services to the Queen and was ordered to form a fleet to attack Spain.
Soon, having received the rank of vice admiral, he prepared 21 ships for the campaign. In 1585, an impressive squadron went to sea, but the captain did not dare to go to the coast of Spain, heading for the Spanish possessions in America, which he thoroughly plundered, capturing a number of large cities, including Santo Domingo (Spanish: Santo Domingo), Cartagena (Spanish: Cartagena) and San Augustin (Spanish: San Augustine).
In 1587, Drake launched his exceptionally audacious attack on the most important Spanish port of Cadiz (Spanish: Cadiz): with 4 warships, he broke into the port, sank and burned more than 30 Spanish ships. As Francis himself put it, he deftly "burned the beard of the Spanish King." And on the way back, the corsair off the Portuguese coast destroyed about 100 enemy ships. However, the richest booty was brought to the corsair by a Portuguese ship sailing from India with a cargo of spices, which was of such value that every sailor of the flotilla already considered his fate "arranged."
In 1588, Sir Francis, along with other English admirals, defeated the Spanish "Invincible Armada". In 1589, he commanded the combined forces of the fleet ("English Armada"), under his command there were over 150 warships.
Drake's "English Armada"
The corsair tried to capture the Portuguese Lisbon, but due to the lack of siege weapons, he suffered a crushing defeat. It seems that this time Drake's luck left, he could not take the city, and out of 16 thousand people only 6 thousand survived. In addition, his military campaign cost the English treasury 50 thousand pounds sterling, which the stingy Queen could not endure , and the Iron Pirate lost her favor.
The next expedition to the shores of America for new treasures was the last for the corsair (1595-1596). Failures pursued the squadron, in addition, the weather was disgusting and diseases spread among the crews. Drake took the ships to an unfavorable place near the island of Escudo le Veragua (Spanish: Escudo de Veraguas). Food was running out, people were dying of dysentery and tropical fever. Sir Francis himself soon fell ill, and on January 28, 1596, at the age of 56, he died of dysentery near Puerto Bello (modern Portobelo in Panama). According to tradition, the famous navigator was buried under volleys ship guns in the ocean, putting the body in a lead coffin. The remnants of the squadron under the command of Thomas Baskerville returned to Plymouth without their admiral.
Which between and 1580 circumnavigated the globe. It was the second ship in history to return from a circumnavigation after the Magellanic carrack Victoria. The ship's captain was Sir Francis Drake.
Circumnavigation The "Golden Doe" lasted 2 years, 10 months and 11 days. Initially, this three-masted flagship was called Pelican. Its length was only 36.5 meters, width - 6.7 meters, cargo capacity - no more than 150 tons. The galleon was equipped with 22 guns.
The Pelican proved to be the only one of Drake's six ships to make it through the Straits of Magellan. Upon entering the Pacific Ocean, Drake renamed it in honor of his court patron, Lord Chancellor Christopher Hutton, whose coat of arms featured a golden doe.
Another replica of the Golden Hind has been moored since 1963 in the harbor of the town of Brixham in Devonshire.
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Literature
- Malakhovskiy K.V. Round-the-world run of the "Golden Doe" / Ed. ed. A. M. Khazanov; USSR Academy of Sciences. - M .: Nauka, 1980. - 168 p. - (Countries and peoples). - 100,000 copies.(reg.)
Links
- (Russian) . Retrieved 26 September 2014.
- (Russian) . Retrieved 26 September 2014.
An excerpt characterizing the Golden Hind
This goal has never been and could not be, because it had no meaning, and its achievement was completely impossible.This goal did not make any sense, firstly, because the frustrated army of Napoleon fled from Russia with all possible speed, that is, it fulfilled the very thing that every Russian could wish for. What was the point of doing various operations on the French, who fled as fast as they could?
Secondly, it was pointless to stand in the way of people who had directed all their energy to flee.
Thirdly, it was pointless to lose their troops to destroy the French armies, which were being destroyed without external causes in such a progression that, without any blocking of the path, they could not transport more than what they transferred in the month of December, that is, one hundredth of the entire army, across the border.
Fourthly, it was pointless to want to capture the emperor, kings, dukes - people whose captivity would have made the actions of the Russians extremely difficult, as the most skillful diplomats of that time (J. Maistre and others) recognized. Even more senseless was the desire to take the French corps, when their troops melted half to the Red, and the divisions of the convoy had to be separated from the corps of prisoners, and when their soldiers did not always receive full provisions and the prisoners already taken were dying of hunger.
The whole thoughtful plan to cut off and catch Napoleon with the army was similar to the plan of a gardener who, driving out the cattle that had trampled on his ridges, would run to the gate and begin to beat this cattle on the head. One thing that could be said in defense of the gardener would be that he was very angry. But this could not even be said about the compilers of the project, because it was not they who suffered from the trampled ridges.
But besides the fact that cutting off Napoleon with the army was pointless, it was impossible.
It was impossible, firstly, because, since experience shows that the movement of columns for five miles in one battle never coincides with plans, the probability that Chichagov, Kutuzov and Wittgenstein converged on time at the appointed place was so negligible that it was equal to impossibility, as Kutuzov thought, even when he received the plan, he said that sabotage over long distances did not bring the desired results.
Secondly, it was impossible because, in order to paralyze the force of inertia with which Napoleon's army was moving back, it was necessary without comparison to have larger troops than those that the Russians had.
The second ship, after the Magellanic ship "Victoria", which made a trip around the world. The ship was built on the stocks of the Aldeburgh shipyard, the sailing equipment consisted of three masts, of which the first two (fore and mainsail) carried 2 tiers of direct sails, and the third (mizzen) was equipped with an oblique Latin sail. The artillery armament consisted of 22 small-caliber guns. The length of the galleon barely reached 40 meters, a width of 6.5 meters, and the total displacement did not exceed 150 tons.
The captain of the ship was the same famous person as the ship itself - Francis Drake, nicknamed the Iron Pirate. In 1577, he equipped 5 ships, among which the Pelican galleon was the largest and, with the blessing of Queen Elizabeth I, went to the shores of South America to rob Spanish ships full of jewels.
After sailing, Drake renamed his flagship Pelican " golden hind"(translated means" golden doe"). One of the versions says that in this way he wanted to emphasize the excellent seaworthiness of the galleon. Another version says that Drake made a kind of curtsy towards his patron Lord Hutton, whose family coat of arms depicted a doe. But most likely, both of these options are appropriate.
The first sailing adventure turned into the collapse of the squadron: in the Pacific Ocean, the ships fell into a severe storm, as a result of which one Marigold ship sank, and the remaining three left the flagship and were soon lost. Later it became known that they were able to get to England. Drake ship carried far to the south, where it was discovered that Tierra del Fuego is just an island, to the south of which is a strait, later named after its discoverer. For 3 years, Drake's team robbed absolutely everything that came across her on the road, and on September 26, 1580, the ship loaded with gold to the sides returned to the port of Plymouth. The captain ordered to give half of the loot to the queen, for which he was knighted right on his ship.
After their robbery around the world, Golden Hind was installed in a dry dock for everyone to visit. In 1662, it was dismantled, as the ship's hull was badly damaged, and already in 1973, a new "Golden Doe" was built according to archival drawings. She repeated the route of her predecessor, and since 1996 she has been in London as a museum.