WESTWARD HO 



Frobisher. 



Before he was knighted Martin Frobisher had done some remark- 

 ably useful exploratory work. He was a Yorkshireman, born about 

 1535, and went to sea at the age of nine. While still in the twenties he 

 made up his mind that he would find a North-West passage to India 

 and China and after many years of discouraging effort he contrived to 

 fit out an expedition of three tiny ships, the Gabrielle of twenty-five tons 

 and the Michael of twenty, with a ten-ton pinnace. Even this was 

 possible only with the help afforded to him by the Earl of Warwick. 

 The Michael deserted him and the pinnace foundered, but in the 

 Gabrielle he held on and reached Labrador. Frobisher Bay he thought 

 was a Strait which would lead him on his way and for many years it 

 bore that name on the chart. When he returned he brought with him 

 some quartz which immediately started an enthusiastic search for gold, 

 although it is very doubtful whether the rock that he brought contained 

 the slightest trace of it. However, it caused quite an important expedi- 

 tion to be fitted out, the Queen starting it by the loan of her ship the 

 Aid and a considerable sum of money. A third expedition in 1578 

 discovered Hudson's Strait more or less by accident but otherwise 

 accomplished little. Afterwards Frobisher was employed by the Navy 

 against the Spaniards and soon after attempted to retire. His roving 

 spirit prevented him, however, and after one or two very minor expedi- 

 tions against the Spaniards he was killed while in command of a squadron 

 off Brest in 1594. 



John Davis. 



Like so many other distinguished seamen of his day John Davis, 

 who has been claimed by many as the greatest of the Elizabethan 

 explorers, was a native of Dartmouth, where he was born somewhere 

 round about 1550. He went to sea from his childhood and having been 

 a friend and neighbour of Gilbert it is only natural that his thoughts 

 should turn towards the North. Equipped by one of the principal 

 members of the Fishmongers' Company in London he set out on two 

 expeditions to the North-West with the Sunshine and Moonshine, of 

 fifty and thirty-five tons respectively, and then on his third and greatest 

 in 1587 with the Sunshine, the Elizabeth and the twenty-ton pinnace 

 Ellen. Arrived at Greenland he set the two bigger ships to fishing while 

 he himself explored the coast in the pinnace. He then pushed on 

 through the Straits named after him into Baffin's Bay. He also com- 

 manded a ship against the Armada and served in other expeditions, 

 until finally he was killed by Japanese pirates in the East Indies, while in 

 the service of the East India Company. Quite apart from his works of 

 discovery he wrote some useful books on seamanship and navigation, 

 and invented navigating instruments which held the field for many years. 



Drake as an Adventurer. 



The part that Sir Francis played in the history of the fighting Navy 

 has already been described, but perhaps his greatest fame rests on his 

 expeditions as an adventurer — expeditions that in those days were a 



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