As our Chairman Carmel Langridge was indisposed, the speaker was introduced by Gerry Harte.

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At the beginning of the Elizabethan era, England was a small, isolated, misty isle on the edge of continental Europe. But sparked by Dr John Dee’s vision in his book The Limits of Empire, England grew to become the centre of a new world of trade and communication, bringing its laws, customs and language to all parts of the world. Justin Newland explained how this book, and this period of history inspired his latest novel, The Mark of the Salamander, which explores the epic story and secret history of Francis Drake’s circumnavigation of the world.

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He began his talk by reviewing some of the major events which affected the course of life in Britain before the reign of Elizabeth I, primarily the invention of the printing press and the Reformation. In an age where there was no distinction in people’s minds between science and magic, Dr John Dee was both astronomer and astrologer to Elizabeth. His interests included cartography and the art of navigation, and he was an enthusiastic proponent of settlements in the New World.

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Most of the talk was taken up by a factual description of Drake’s circumnavigation. He set out with five ships, his own being the Pelican (it was only later that he renamed it the Golden Hind). Fearful of mutiny, he informed his crews that they were only sailing to the Levant! Much of his voyage retraced the footsteps of Magellan who had circumnavigated the globe many years previously. But having rounded Cape Horn, Drake diverted from Magellan's route and sailed up the west coast of America to California (which he christened New Albion).  On the way to California, he overtook and seized the Spanish treasure ship, the Cacafuego.

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.... and thence across the Pacific, through the East Indes; then across the Indian Ocean and around Africa.

 

So he returned home with just one of the original five ships, but with much booty for his backers, namely Elizabeth and her courtiers, foremost among them Sir Christopher Hatton (whose crest included a golden hind).