Sir Francis Drake is buried in Panama

Mention Sir Francis Drake in England, and you'll get a quick response, listing his achievements as the first Englishman to circumnavigate the World, the man who continued playing a game of bowls at Plymouth when told the Spanish Armada was coming, and then sailed out to defeat them.

Mention him in Spain and you will hear tales of a blood-thirsty, slave trading pirate who laid waste to settlements throughout the New World and whose name was used to threaten disobedient children: "If you don't go to sleep the bogeyman, El Draco (or El Draqui) will come to get you."

But saint or sinner, Drake, who was buried off Porto Belo, played a major role in world history and his exploits have been mythologized and demonized, depending which side of the fence you were brought up on. And he's in good company, as many of the great names of history are similarly loved or despised, like Phillip II of Spain, Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon, Henry V of England, Winston Churchill and both President Roosevelts.

Drake was born into a farming family Devonshire in April, round about 1540 the eldest of 12 sons. The family moved to Kent where they lived in an old sea hulk and his father preached to sailors in the navy.

He first went to sea in the 1550's as an apprentice to the elderly master of a small coastal freighter. By the time he was 20 he was captain of the vessel, and when the old owner died he became it's owner. During that time he honed his skills as a navigator on the waters of the North Sea..

In 1563 he first sailed to the Spanish Main with his cousin Sir John Hawkins, and it's here that many of the school history books conveniently skipped details of the cargoes they carried.. The series of voyages were the first English slave trading expeditions.

They forcibly rounded up West Africans to sell them to the Spanish for forced labour camps, euphemistically called Plantations.

England was at war with Spain, so when the ships arrived in the Caribbean ports the Spanish colonialists "surrendered" for a few hours, while they purchased the human cargoes. It was the custom of the Spanish navy to turn a blind eye to this trading with the enemy, but during a trip to San Juan de Ulua he was surprised by a Spanish fleet and narrowly escaped. This turned his dislike of the Spanish, already fueled by antipathy to their Catholicism, into hatred, and he devoted his life to fighting the Spanish empire and, incidentally, building on the fortune he had already made selling slaves.

On his second slaving trip he fought a battle against Spanish forces that cost many English lives, but earned him the favor of Queen Elizabeth, a good thing to have in those days. She commissioned him as a privateer, leaving only the Spanish to call him a pirate, and he grew bolder and richer, and brought back shiploads of gold and plunder all legitimized by royal decree.

In 1577 he was commissioned to undertake an expedition against the Spanish along the Pacific Coast. On this voyage he entered the history books as the first Englishman to sail around the world. He set off with 5 ships and 150 men . After crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Straits of Magellan, he gained another first, as an Antartic explorer. A storm blew his ship at least as far south as 56 degrees, an achievement that was not surpassed for nearly 200 years until Captain Cook's voyage of 1773.

A few weeks later, he made it to the Pacific, but violent storms sank one ship and forced another to return to England. He renamed the Pelican the Golden Hind, and sailed on along the Pacific Coast attacking Spanish ports, and capturing ships. He benefited not only from their cargo, but heir charts which were superior to the ones he had received in England. After fixing up his ships, and laying claim to lands as far north as Oregon, he sailed west across the Pacific. There were many more setbacks, including being caught on a reef for three days, before finally rounding the Cape of Good Hope. He sailed into Plymouth with the Golden Hind and 56 men in July 1580. The ship was loaded with treasure and spices, and the Queen's half share surpassed the rest of the crown's income for the entire year. Drake was knighted, became a Member of Parliament, and Mayor of Plymouth..

Two years later war again broke out with Spain, and he sailed once more to the New World sacking ports and raising the ire of Philip II of Spain who ordered the planning of an invasion of England.

Drake "singed the King of Spain's beard" when he led a pre-emptive strike into Cadiz, capturing six ships and sinking 31. The invasion was delayed for a year. When it finally came in 1588, Drake, now a Vice Admiral, defeated the Armada. and sailed forever into the English history books, and his drum roll, the call to arms, is said to be heard whenever England is in danger of invasion

After the Spanish Armada, England sent its own fleet and army, to support the rebels in Portugal. It was a dismal failure, and r the rest of his seafaring career went downhill. He sailed again to Spanish America, suffered several defeats in a row and unsuccessfully attacked San Juan, Puerto Rico where Spanish gunners sent a cannon ball through his cabin.

In 1596 he died of dysentery while achored near Porto Belo, Panama, and was buried at sea in a lead coffin. Not only the Spanish saw Drake as a bogeyman. He is ensconced in Irish history for his involvement in the 1575 massacre of 600, men women and children who had surrendered on Rathlin Island, Ulster.

But in the yes of history, at least English history, he will be remembered as an explorer and savior of the country, whose drum beat was heard in the dark days of 1940 when England was threatened with invasion by Hitler's Germany. Britain defeated the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain, and the German armada never set sail.