Shore and Sea; Or, Stories of Great Vikings and Sea Captains. Or, Stories of Great Vikings and Sea Captains (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1883. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... VI. SIR FRANCIS DRAKE: A NEW BIOGRAPHY. I. THE story of Sir Francis Drake has been so often told that I hesitate to tell it afresh, knowing that I have no new views to put forward. But I hope to bring togethermany facts which have hitherto been scattered over various authorities; and I feel that my readers might justly complain if, in a volume dedicated to great vikings and seacaptains, no mention were made of him who was the greatest, or equal to the greatest, among-them. When the doctrines of the Reformation were first being preached in England, there lived in a cottage near Tavistock, in Devonshire, a man of moderate estate, named Edmund Drake. By marriage he was connected with those famous seamen, the Hawkinses of Plymouth. To him, in 1541, was born a son, whom, after his patron, the second Earl of Bedford, he named Francis. Embracing the new teaching, Drake, under the tyranny of the Six Articles Act, was forced to fly from his Devonshire home, and after much wandering he retired to Chatham, where he lived for a while, it is said, in the hull of a stranded ship. On the accession of Edward VI. he began to preach the tenets pf the reformed church to the sailors of the king's fleet, and afterwards, taking orders, was made Vicar of Upnor, on the Medway. One of a family of nine sons, Francis Drake did not enter . life under very bright auspices. At an early age he was apprenticed to the master of a small Channel coaster. Being "painful and diligent," he contrived to secure his master's regard, and at his death found himself rewarded with the legacy of this little craft. Drake was then about twenty-three. There has scarcely, if ever, been a period in our English history when to rise in the world was so easy for young men of courage and capacity, --when adventures c...