by Helen Wallis

'When Francis Drake
Did undertake
A voyage in fifteen seventy-nine,
Half-way around
The world he found
A land with most unusual clime.

'Twas there, they say,
He found a bay
In which he caulked the Golden Hind,
And whiled away
A five-week stay
That left a mystery behind.

Sir Francis Drake
A plate did make
And nailed it to "a faire great poste,"
But if you care
To know just where
You'll have to interview his ghost!

WE ARE PRIVILEGED (by permission of Mrs Frances Hanna) to print here for the first time these verses by the late Warren L. Hanna of California on the problem of identifying Drake's anchorage in 1579 on the north-west coast of North America. A distinguished Californian lawyer, Warren Hanna, was a member of the State of California Sir Francis Drake Commission. He applied 'keen judicial analysis and a mastery of historical narrative' to the unravelling of the 400-year-old conundrum. He published the results of his study in Lost Harbor. The Controversy over Drake's California anchorage (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: 1979). His conclusion was that 'after 400 years of mystery, including nearly 200 years of controversy, we still have no solution to the Drake anchorage riddle (p.344). Quoting Robert F. Heizer (1974), he added: 'Thus far, no specialist knowledge has succeeded in discovering the solution to the problem … But opinions have not and never will solve the question – only some kind of archaeological or documentary evidence can resolve the problem.'

In publishing Bob Ward's 'Lost Harbour Found' in TMC 45 we were hoping to stimulate debate, and were not expressing our personal viewpoint. As Hanna pointed out, 'There are still a few small harbours between San Luis Obispo and Seattle which have been overlooked in the long and intensive search for the true anchorage.' We have received various responses to Bob Ward's article which are printed below. They include a long letter from Raymond Aker, President of the Drake Navigators Guild of California, and author of a major monograph 'Sir Francis Drake at Drake's Bay' (Point Reyes, California: 1978).

Whatever the pros and cons of the thesis that Drake's anchorage was on the coast of what is now Oregon, it is significant that Bob Ward has made a major discovery concerning the evidence of the Molyneux terrestrial globe. The evidence shows that the two editions of the globe, 1592 and 1603, show completely different outlines for the north-west coast of North America. The Middle Temple globe (1603) has been extensively revised. The coast is realigned north-south instead of northwest-southeast, and has been moved some 30 degrees to the east. This revised version must be regarded as one of the most authoritative surviving records of Drake's discoveries, for the chart of the circumnavigation which Drake presented to Queen Elizabeth I in 1580 is now lost, presumably burnt in the fire which destroyed the Palace of Whitehall in 1698. Three reduced versions of the chart are preserved, however, supplementing the evidence of the globe. One of these, the map by Jodocus Hondius made in London in about 1590, published in Amsterdam in about 1595, includes the inset plan of Drake's anchorage, Tortus Novae Albionis.' This is crucial evidence, for there is reason to believe that the plan was copied from Drake's chart.

Raymond Aker's contention that Drake's anchorage was in Drake's Bay in California is one of various theories held by Californian experts. Taking account of these differences of opinion, the California Historical Resources Commission voted three to one in October 1978 that on the available evidence a decision could not be made as to the exact location. In the course of the international conference, 'Sir Francis Drake and the Famous Voyage, 1577-1580', held in California from June 10-17, 1979, we attended a ceremony for the unveiling of a commemorative tree trunk and plaque set just beyond the northern end of the Golden Gate bridge, inscribed with the statement that Drake had anchored somewhere in Marin County. The Commission did not permit the setting up of a plaque in any one place claiming to be Portus Novae Albionis.

After the conference I flew over the various possible Californian sites in a party led by Robert H. Power, another leading anchorage expert. Robert Power himself expounds with vigour the thesis that Drake anchored in San Quentin Cove, within San Francisco Bay. I had earlier attended a celebration at Coos Bay which the Oregon Historical Society identifies as the probable site of the 'bad bay' which Drake, sailing south in search of anchorage, entered on June 5, 1579 but where he did not land. The Society supports the view that the safe anchorage was in California.

In organising at the British Library the exhibition 'Sir Francis Drake' which was displayed in London in 1977, and then in Exeter, Lexington, Massachusetts, and finally Oakland, California, 1979, we did not venture into the controversy. I personally agree with Warren Hanna that we must accept at present a 'nonproven' verdict. The secrecy imposed on Drake and his men between 1580 and 1589 undoubtedly led to a loss of important evidence. Perhaps we will never know for certain where Drake anchored, and nearby in an historic ceremony, took possession of Nova Albion for Elizabeth I.

On June 26, 1579, Drake was crowned with a headdress by the chief of the local Indians. This view of Portus Novae Albionis is by Arnoldus Montanus, who was related to the engraver Jodocus Hondius, and it may be based on documentary sources. It is believed by some to rank as the first view of Drake's anchorage. (From De Nieuwe en Onbekende Wereld, Amsterdam: 1671).


An engraved portrait of Sir Francis Drake by Crispin van de Passe, Cologne 1598. The hemispheric world map marks in a generalised way Drake's track. (By courtesy of the British Library).