There have been numerous notable English sailors throughout history. Horatio Nelson, one of the most renowned and successful British flag officers in the Royal Navy, was among them. Sir Francis Drake was another well-known sailor renowned for circumnavigating the globe. Queen Elizabeth rewarded him for his accomplishments, and he was later knighted.
Francis Drake, the most famous English sailor, completed the first circumnavigation of the globe and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. His voyages across the Atlantic facilitated Europeans' exploration and colonization of new lands, but they also exacerbated tensions between England and Spain.
Queen Elizabeth granted Drake a privateer's commission in 1572, allowing him to plunder Spanish ships and cargo in the Americas. His raids on Spanish ports along the west coast of South America, a significant source of Spanish wealth, made him famous.
In 1577, Drake set sail from Plymouth with a fleet of five ships and traversed the Strait of Magellan to the south and west. Afterward, he sailed north in search of the Northwest Passage. The journey was challenging, marked by storms and mutiny.
Sir John Hawkins, born in Plymouth, England, was a sailor and slave trader. He was a pivotal figure in the expansion of the Atlantic slave trade. He was also a renowned pirate who had many sea adventures. Sir Francis Drake was his cousin, and the two frequently collaborated on sailing expeditions.
He successfully transported 301 Africans to the Caribbean islands as slave trader. This infuriated the Spanish, prompting them to prohibit English ships from trading in their colonies in the West Indies. Later, he became a naval commander and administrator, and he began constructing swift, streamlined, and well-armed battleships. These vessels had a significant impact on the design of subsequent frigates.
Francis l'Olonnais, or Jean-David Nau, is known in Exquemelin's Buccaneers of America (though many people today call him Long Ben) and was one of the most notorious buccaneers of his time. He had a reputation for terrorizing Spanish ships and coastal settlements with extreme cruelty.
According to pirate historian of the 17th century Alexander Exquemelin, he was an expert at torturing his victims. He severed their tongues, hacked them to pieces, and suffocated their eyes with a cord wrapped around their necks.
After being shipwrecked off the coast of Panama, he and his crew ventured inland in search of food. However, the natives quickly captured, killed, and consumed them. Thankfully, only a few men managed to escape and survive. After returning to Tortuga, he assembled a new crew and plotted an assault on Maracaibo, Venezuela, in the present day.
Sir Ben Ainslie, one of the most renowned English sailors, has been passionate about sailing since childhood. He learned to sail at the family home in Restronguet Creek, Cornwall, near Falmouth, at age seven.
After winning silver in the Laser class at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, he won gold in Sydney four years later by defeating Robert Scheidt of Brazil in a grueling rematch. In 2000, he switched to the Finn class, which required him to gain approximately 18 kilograms to compete.
He became the most successful British sailor, winning gold at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics. He has collaborated with INEOS to establish a British team for the 2021 America's Cup.
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